Sustainable Sailing

Today’s delivery, what seems to be the industry standard for sewing machines that can handle sail repairs and making all the canvas work that boats need (it can sew through 10 layers of sail cloth).

The first task will be covers for new cushions (and by Jane doing that we should save the purchase price).

Then it will be a mainsail “stackpac” (a permanently fixed, zip opening sail cover).

By making our own covers for everything on deck we can reduce UV damage significantly as well as keeping salt and water aware from winch bearings so reducing maintenance.

Only slight problem is the weight. Jane can’t even budge it (think it weighs about 28kg in the case, more than our suitcase scale can cope with).

This is a beautifully created machine that is designed from the ground up for strength and maintainability. Every part can be replaced and it comes with detailed drawings of every part and exactly how all the moving bits should/can be adjusted. All this is essential for something that could be critical to safety on a voyage (an extreme example could be to repair a wrecked sail that otherwise could delay a long voyage to the point where food gets short).

Sailrite also have a huge collection of YouTube videos showing not just the mechanics, set up and maintenance of the machine but also how to make just about anything with it.

All products should be made and sold like this rather than being disposable.

Jane has been ordering and collecting some suitable remnants of material for the cushions. We also see that there are now materials available for sail covers made from post industrial waste which is awesome.