With some weird late-winter weather interrupting our early summer, I've been able to spend some time sewing the bolt rope into the edge of my sail without feeling guilty: surely you don't expect me to work on the hull when it's 43°F and raining?!?
The bolt rope is an actual rope sewn into a hem along the edge of the sail. It provides a simple way to reinforce the edge so that stresses are well-distributed without a complicated seam.
Tonight, I put the finishing stitches in. For those of you keeping track at home, that's about 26' of hand-stitching. Sewing is not my strong suit, so it was tough work. I actually missed the infernal device! But the sail really looks like a sail now.
There's still more rope to sew on, but that goes outside the hem, and is merely sewn/lashed to the interior bolt rope at 6" intervals. I suspect it will be quicker work. Before I can do it, though, I'll need to buy some line at the local hardware store. I don't have enough of the used polypro rope I pulled out of a trash can to complete the job.
I'll try to pick up that line, and maybe some sandpaper, tomorrow. And if this weather holds, I might just pull out the infernal device again to sew on my sail numbers and Wharram insignia, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment