A Project Named Clancy - X. The Sail

The Clancy support network that Bob Pickett set up is long since gone, so you are on your own when sourcing parts like hardware or sails.  The plans (both the New Yankee Workshop version and those in the book) do provide a sail plan with enough information that a sailmaker could make a Clancy sail.  Rather than so this, I decided to try my hand at making my own using a kit from Sailrite. 

The kit includes pre-cut panels that are sewn together to form the sail.  It also includes most of the other things you will need, including the thread, seamstick tape, battens and grommets.  You'll need to supply the sewing machine (I bought a heavy-duty Singer for this project), scissors/cutting instruments, and, most annoyingly, a grommet die tool (available from Sailrite).  The kit includes a good set of directions that are sufficient to guide anyone with basic sewing skills through the process.  I had not sewed before, but figured that a sewing machine is just another power tool, so how hard could it be?  I learned that there is some technique involved, but overall the Sailrite kit can be successfully turned into a sail by even a complete novice.

 

I used a Singer 4452 sewing machine with a 110/18 needle and found it to be a satisfactory setup.  The machine was working fairly hard when sewing the thick corner patches, but managed to get through it. Because of the size of the sail, I had to set up the machine on the floor of the living room (a.k.a. the sail loft), else managing the huge panels would have been impossible.  The ergonomics of sitting on the floor, feeding great rolls of canvas through a sewing machine while pushing the foot pedal are challenging and I found that enlisting a helper made a big difference.  As I had never sewed before, before doing anything serious, I used some of the spare sailcloth included in the kit to practice and to set the top tension on the machine to get good stitches.  

The first step in building the sail is to cut out the batten pockets and sew them to the sail panels.  It is easiest to do this before sewing the panels of the sail together, so that you do not have to wrangle massive swaths of canvas through the sewing machine.  Nearly everything in the kit is pre-cut, but the batten pockets are for some reason the exception.  Dimensions are provided, and the pockets can be cut in short order.

The edges of the pockets are hemmed (I had to learn about hemming and seam allowances before that sentence made sense):

This is repeated for all three batten pockets.  

An elastic band is sewn on to the forward end of each pocket.  The batten will eventually end up sliding into the pocket and against the elastic band, which will help hold it in the pocket.  The other end of the elastic band is sewn to the sail in a premarked location.  This was a bit of a pain to accomplish since you have to fight the sail panel and pocket and the elastic at the same time.  After this, seamstick (double sided) tape is used to place the batten pocket on the sail (the positions are marked on the sail)... 

...and all but the aft 2" of the batten are sewn down.  The last 2" get sewn after the leach of the sail is finished.

Next, the panels of the sail are sewn together.  This is a remarkably straightforward process.  The upper edge of each sail panel has a line printed on it.  The lower edge of the panel above is lined up with this.

Seamstick tape is then applied...

 and the panels are taped together:

They seam is then run through the sewing machine twice to receive two rows of zigzag stitches.

After stitching together a few panels, it is starting to look like a sail!

The process is repeated until all the panels have been added.

Having a large "sail loft" is important.  The living room/dining room is the largest open space in the house, and generally fit the bill.

The corners of the sail are reinforced with thick patches, assembled from multiple layers of sail cloth.  These are assembled with seamstick...

...before being sewn to the sail. These are the true test of the adequacy of your sewing machine.

The leach and foot of the sail are then hemmed, and the remaining length of the batten pockets are sewn down.  The original plans call for a sleeve to be sown onto the luff, into which the mast slipped when rigging (a la a Laser).  Since I am using a square-section spruce mast instead of the aluminum tube, I had to modify the luff.  After consulting with the sailmaker at Sailrite, I finished the luff with some sail tape and a bolt rope sewn in.  I then added small eyes every ~18", to which I shackled on external track slides.  The mast will get and external t-track sail track, and the sail will be hoisted via a halyard, and the downhaul will be eliminated.

The final step in constructing the sail is to install the grommets at the corners of the sail.  A hole is cut in the sail (or can be punched using a cutter available from Sailrite -- this makes the job easier and neater, but they are pricey and not absolutely required).  One half of the grommet is placed into the hole, the other half is place on the other side of the sail, everything in placed into the die (available from Sailrite) and pressed together with mighty whacks from a mallet.