Sail Repair Seminar

The five of us sit quietly on little wooden benches in our socks and slippers.  Our eyes are trained intently on our laps, needles in hand, as we carefully pull stitch after stitch through a piece of sail cloth.  We’ve just learned the technique for hand-sewing a brass ring onto a sail, and while our rings certainly don’t look as lovely as our instructor’s do—we have a bit of that unsightly 
“pinwheeling” going on—we’re feeling pretty satisfied with ourselves.

A few times each year, Carol Hasse, along with her crew at Port Townsend Sails, opens the loft to 10 students for a weekend-long seminar on inspecting and repairing sails.  Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend. The hand-working room with our little benches circled up. Each bench is a mini workstation with mallets, needles, thread… and a Band-Aid (which, yes, I had to use).

One of the aspects of the cruising/living aboard lifestyle that I’ve always found appealing is that of self-sufficiency.  Whether you sail offshore or just off the breakwater, being able to maintain your vessel and all its systems brings a measure of satisfaction, security and independence.

And since sails are arguably the most important system on a sailboat, I figured it was time I learned something about how to keep them in shape, how to make repairs and how not to freak out when a sail tears or a slide rips out or we lose a hank (as is bound to happen).

I showed up at 8:30 AM on Saturday morning not sure what to expect.  After introductions, we broke up into two groups of five and jumped right in.  My group headed off to the hand-working room where we got busy sewing brass rings, hanks, slides and easy reefs onto our sail “sampler.”

Halfway through the day, we moved over to the main loft area for a lecture followed by a hands-on inspection of our sails (each student was encouraged to bring in a sail to inspect).  As I headed up the street to my hotel that night, my head was spinning!  We’d crammed so much into one 9-hour day, and I was feeling slightly overwhelmed.  But after a good night’s sleep and a couple cups of coffee the next morning, we were back at it—and it felt great.

My slipper-clad group of five started out Day Two on the sewing machines.  We added a leech table, poked holes in our sail—and then fixed them in various ways (with Dacron tape or with a “TV Screen Patch”).  We added chafe protection like spreader patches and wings, and I must say, I was having fun.  I’ve done a bit of sewing in the past (fleece coats for Greta and a Santa suit for my brother and sister-in-law’s dog, George), but even Scott who hadn’t touched a sewing machine before picked it right up.  I even had Aaron add a Sailrite machine to his Craigslist search (since I haven’t been a good enough girl this year for Santa to shell out $900 for a new one).The machine room

We found ourselves back in the hand-working room after lunch for another round of needle work, this time sewing on a leather chafe guard and learning a number of different stitches that would come in handy when the boat is tossing around and you can’t go below to use your machine (or if you’re like me and don’t have one).

With my certificate in hand at the end of the day, I truly felt a sense of accomplishment.  The skills I learned in the seminar gave me the confidence I need to feel comfortable addressing the needs of our sail suit—from inspection to preventative care to emergency repairs.  Aaron and I have taken a number of classes over the past year or so, and the feeling of empowerment that comes along with knowledge is something that I never get tired of.

A few examples of what we learned: My hand-sewn sampler showing: brass ring, slide, hank, easy reef, leather chafe guard and reinforcing webbing.

Hand-sewn brass ring detail—minimal pinwheeling!

 My sampler showing patches and wings sewn on the machine

Spreader patch detail

Look!  It’s our new mainsail!

For more information: Port Townsend Sails – Sail Repair Seminars