GP14 Sailing Forums Forum Shrunken mainsail luff bolt rope

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    • #5252
      Brian Bostock
      Participant

      I have rescued an elderly Mk 2 from the ‘Sin bin’ of our club dinghy park and in the process of renovating its few bits of wood fittings, as the hull is needing just a coat of paint internally. I also managed to track down its sails, which were in surprisingly good condition, ‘Jackells speejak’ sails. Their only real fault is the mainsail luff which has shrunk down to 17ft and that is with a good pull, and luff sleeve is rather compressed and wrinkled. My inclination is to take it to a sail maker for repair, which is likely to be expensive, and so wondered if anybody could give some DIY advice on the problem.

    • #5254
      Chris Beddow
      Participant

      Speed sails used to regularily do this repair, by releasing the bottom of the bolt rope and joining an additional length of rope to the existing  shrunken rope.Nowadays they normally use pre shrunk rope.

       

    • #5297
      Brian Bostock
      Participant

      Thank you both Oliver and Chris for your comments. Tempted as I was to have a try at the bolt rope myself I sent the sail to Jeckells to have the job done properly.
      Actually Oliver considering the possible age of the sail it was in remarkable condition good condition apart from the shrunken rope, the material was almost crinkly new.

      Brian

    • #5253
      Oliver Shaw
      Moderator

      The sailmaker may not be outrageously expensive,  and it may be worth at least a telephone discussion with your chosen sailmaker.

      Jeckells are not desperately far from your area,  they have a good reputation,  and I gather that they made the original sail.

      I obviously can’t commit a sailmaker,  but it may be that all that is needed is to replace the luff rope.   It might even be possible to do it without disturbing the luff pocket,  but I would expect that opening the pocket and then replacing the rope and finally resewing the pocket would be the easiest approach.   At the very least it would be worth the enquiry to them.   They have done a modest amount of repair work for me over the years,  with several different boats,  and I have been well pleased with the results and I thought their prices were fair.

      However it is sensible to also consider whether the finished job will be worth it;  you say that the sails are otherwise in surprisingly good,  but check (so fas as possible) that the cloth is not pulled badly out of shape.   But if you are confident of that,  then a modest expenditure to sort out the luff problem may be sensible.

       

      Oliver

      • This reply was modified 9 years, 9 months ago by hugh brazier. Reason: format
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