I think a sail should win a sailing related photo contest.

[Hayden Watson]

I have entered the photo of my Catalina that I use for my avatar into the photo contest that SailRite is currently holding for pictures of projects created from their products. At this time the top three photos are non-boating related items.

I am hoping to see a real sail at the top of the list. If you are interested in seeing that a sail actually wins a sail photo contest you can check it out at http://www.wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/47230/voteable_entries/7959203


My entry, currently in 4th place, is titled “Star of Papillon” and I think that it is the best looking photo in the bunch but I will leave it to you to decide. :dance:

 

[Mrs. JimR]

Beautiful! Good luck! You got my vote.

 

[Bob S]

Beautiful.....you got my vote!

 

[Hayden Watson]

Thanks. We just passed a tent and are now in third place. :dance:

We made this 800 square-foot sail in our 250 square-foot living room. It is assembled using a tape together process that reduces the sewing to just the horizontal seams. After three years of racing and cruising it is holding up great. It even survived a “shrimping incident” when the halyard block shackle broke in a 20 knot gust. It took 3 crew to drag the sail back aboard because we were still traveling at over 7 knots under main only!

 

[RAD]

ya got my vote....and thats a nice sail

 

[Hermit Scott]

Very nice sail. I voted for you. I hope you win. Though the hat is a formidable foe.

 

[dscribner]

Beautiful sail! I'm hoping to do the same this winter. You've got my vote!

 

[Stu Jackson]

As a photo, it really was tops. Also as an application. I was wondering what non-boat related items were, now I understand.

Vote early, vote often!!!

Use all your different email addresses!

Congratulations on your "shameless" get-out-the-vote efforts. It's well worth it for this one!

 

[woodster]

you just got my vote and you moved in to 2nd place congrats....


regards

woody

 

[Brian D]

Just voted and looks like you might be on top now. Good luck!

 

[RonRelyea]

you got my vote!

great spinnaker!

 

[tommays]

You got my vote and i have to say that is one of the best jobs i have ever seen

 

[Rag Bagger]

Just voted for your photo, not only because you mentioned it but yours was truly the best project photo. Great spinnaker.

 

[Charisma]

Good Looking Sail.....you got my vote!

 

[Nereussailor]

Photo

Beautiful sail....You got my vote.

 

[Hayden Watson]

Thanks for the votes

I thought I would add some of the techy bits. This sail was designed to be as large an asymmetrical as I could get and still rate a code 4 under PHRF. When we got it built, it was 1 square inch too big and my fleet measure told me it would be a code 5. I told him to come back in a week and we would measure again. To quote Bill Cosby’s dad, "You know, I brought you in this world, and I can take you out. And it don't make no difference to me, I'll make another one look just like you." We recut the sail to remove 1” from the leach and luff and now it is 2” square inches under the limit.

With an asymmetrical spinnaker this large I am able to fly it on a pole just like a symmetrical which lets me sail much deeper than normal A-sails. Because it is asymmetric I can also sail at higher angles without or without the pole.

The tape together sail has worked great for me. The sail is now 3 years old and holding up perfectly. In a resent race I was on a tight reaching leg with 8-10 knots of breeze at an apparent wind angle of 55 degrees. We were rail down and right on the edge of control. What a ride. Fortunately, we were racing with the snuffer that day and were able to douse by letting the sheet fly and hauling down the sock.

The first year I babied the sail because I was concerned about the tape. Then in one race, I was surprised by a 20 knot gust. The halyard block shackle broke and the whole sail went into the water. We were dragging it behind the boat at 7 knots. The sail had the snuffer at the head and it took all the strength of 3 crew to pull the mess back aboard. No damage. That tape is tough.

 

[All U Get]

Good looking sail. For those of us who might try one, is the sailcloth available for different images or are you tied to symetrical designs?
All U Get

 

[Hayden Watson]

I definitely wanted a 5 pointed star cut sail. I had seen one back in the 80’s and thought it was very cool looking. This kit was purchased and cut as a standard three pointed star cut from SailRite. That was the closest they could get me to what I wanted. I then purchased extra 60” wide ¾ oz spinnaker cloth in yellow and red to built the cross arms. I think the shape and form turned out pretty good for our first try at making a spinnaker. I was responsible for layout, and structural considerations. My high school aged daughter who was in advanced geometry was responsible for figuring out the geometry. My wife had control of all assembly.

Basically, we assembled each of the quadrants that make up a three point star-cut. Then I laid out each quadrant so that the horizontal seam was flat on the floor and over laid it with the horizontal fabric being carful to align the weave of the fabric with the lines of stress in the sail. After that it was a matter of cutout and replace. I know of one sail that has a grizzly bear appliquéd into it using this technique.