Sail Cloth

by Dave Acree

For those who are looking into making their own sails for the fun of it and cost savings, here is some info you will need. The bigest problem you face is what to buy and where to find the materials.

Sail making materials are not hard to find if you know where to find them. All it takes is someone to let you know where. You are in luck, below is a list of materials and who makes them and where to buy.

For Scale Sailboat Models:

Dacron
A.J. Fisher, Inc.
1002 Etowah Ave.
Royal Oak, MI 48067
(313)541-0352
Call for cloth price. I think it is around $5.00
a yard but call anyway.
Make sure they roll up the cloth and
mail in a tub, not folded.

For Racing Sailboats:

Clear Micafile
by Coverite
Cost: $10 to $20 a roll.
You can buy it at most hobby
stores. Good low cost material for
making racing sails for 36/600, 1
meter, Marbleheads.

Trispi 25
GTS Flexible Materials
99 Brownlee Blvd.
Warwick, RI 02886
401)732-5023
Cost: $4.25 per meter of cloth.
Good material for racing sails for
36/600. 1 Meter and Marbleheads. It
can only be purchased in 25 meter
lengths or more as a minimum order.
Three clubs in our area went together
and purchased 42 meters. I have had
the best luck making sails with this material.
Construction was easy and the sewing was
painless.

Corner Patch Material:

Plain .005 Sheet Styrene
by Evergreen Scale Models
Can be bought at most hobby stores.

Duralene
Can be bought at some art supply stores.

In the past few months I have sewn 2 suits of sails, 1 for the 36/600 and the other suit was for my Marblehead. The total savings for sewing my own sails, around $200.00! Not bad for $8.00 in sail material cost!

Well, I hope this will help in your sail making activity!