Main Sail Refurbish

This Spring I was doing my inspection and maintenance, and looking at the mainsail I found not only was it getting old, but the seams were coming apart. The thread was deteriorated to the point of being very weak and the fabric was not far behind. Looking at it with an eye towards rebuilding it, I found it had been done at least once before, and was literally coming apart at the seams. I got quotes from a local sail maker, a big time sail maker and a SAILRITE kit. All were beyond my immediate means. I remembered that when I bought MORGANCE she had a spare main aboard that was not hers and I had put it into storage, not even looking at it. I dug it out and opened it up for a good look. What I found it had come off an Alberg 35 and looked promising, the material looked sound, the stitching looked OK, a fue stains, only cosmetic, no holes, OK. I called the local sail maker to have a look at it and the boat to see what could be done. After measurements were taken, and the sails were inspected, he looked at both, The Alberg sail looked to be in fair shape, certainly much better than the old one and the measurements were in the ballpark. The luff was a couple of inches shorter, but I wanted to raise the boom to accommodate the addition of a Bimini the future, and it needed to have the tack cringle cut back to accommodate the roller furling and add chaffing gear to the clew cringle and reefing points. I would then reattach the bolt roping, and replace all the old slides with new ones. I also replaced all the old battens. The job cost less than $200.00 and time spent sewing. We took her for sea trials and she sailed very nicely, I was pleased with the outcome. - Terri with MORGANCE

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