Looking for a Sail Loft

[Dan B]

great day on the lake - a bit hot, but steady 12+ knot winds.

Great, until the tack ring ripped off my genoa and it started flying up the furler luff. Just motored over to the nearest sandy beach, drove up onto the sand for a repair. Down comes the genoa, up goes the never-used jib and we are off in about 20 minutes.

Looks the sun got to the cloth strap on the sail holding the tack ring on. Rotted away. Can anyone recommend a sail loft for a repair?

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Might not be worth fixing it if the fibers are that sun damaged...ie, your sail repair may cost you half as much as a new sail. Btw, a U/V cover will signficantly extend the life of your head sail if you leave it in the sun all the time.

[Dan B]

Thanks Dimitri. The genoa has a UV strip sewn on so the sail is in good shape. It is just the small cloth strap that runs from the tack to the tack ring. Just a cloth loop that disiintegrated and ripped away. I might just try to fix it myself. Nothing to loose and I might learn something in the process I can pass along to others.

[They Theirs]

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[Billy]

Dan, seeing you're in Cary, you might want to post the question @ ncsail.org. These guys are very friendly and can possibly tell you of a loft nearby. I know of one that does his own work. Also the people at
http://www.intl-fiberglass.com/index.html who make the Isotopes in Durham might be able to help. I don't remember who makes their sails. Right near you is the Carolina Sailing Club. http://www.carolinasailingclub.org/xoops/ I would think these people would/should know the better lofts.
Good Luck.

[Dimitri-2000X-Tampa]

Dan, now that I understand your damage a bit better, I'll retract what I said before. Perhaps if it is just that little strap, you are looking at like a 50-80 dollar job and since you have the U/V strip, the rest of the sail is probably in decent condition. I think my boat is 1 year newer than yours and a sail loft just told me I still had lots of years left in my main sail.

When I got the u/v strip put on the genoa, the boat was already 3 years old and had a bit of sun stain on the leech and foot but I figured it was still new enough to invest in the u/v cover. I don't know how much time it actually spent in the sun. If I had a sail that had spent 6-7 years in the sun though, then it may not be worth fixing...especially seeing as these are some of the cheapest sails on Earth.

Btw, I would say that most lofts will probably do mail order work. I know the one I just took my sail to does. So even if you don't have a local place, you could just ship it off somewhere and I'm sure they could probably fix it better than new.