Emperor's New Clothes
Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:55 pm
On and off throughout the Sping and Summer Laura has been working away on our new exterior canvas for Bolero. I have posted a picture here and there, maybe only on my blog, but I thought I would post the finished results here. If I accidently say we when talking about work done, I mean Laura. It was all her. My only job was as an idealistic perfectionist. Let's just say there was some some seam ripping before I stop my whining.
I already discussed our new, old, Pfaff 130 sewing machine and it work exceptionally well. That is once Laura put aside her Singer prejudices. It was just a work horse. A very good tool.
We had originally decided to have a jib bag and a mainsail cover that we could attach wings to for covering the cockpit when needed. But in the end Laura sewed up a separate cockpit cover and mainsail cover. We want a mainsail cover for those days and night when we are staying on the boat.
We ordered all of our supplies from Sailrite. A kits for the jib bag and for the mainsail cover and seperate supplies for the the cockpit cover since Laura was creating her own pattern.
Laura sewed up the jib bag first. I made one of these for my old Bluenose and we both agreed that this was a good first start. Unfortunately our battened jib was not happy with the standard jib bag shape from Sailrite. It works and it fits but it is just a bit awkward.
The mainsail was next. And anyone who saw my Bolero foredeck anchor locker mock-up on our living room floor will not be surprised that I wanted a mockup to help size the mainsail cover. So I created a mast track on the front porch and attached the boom and mainsail. This allowed Laura quick and easy fittings. And also allowed me to install the reefing system.
Laura was able to mostly finish the jib bag and mainsail cover prior to launch and all in all we are pretty happy with these.
And one more picture of the mainsail cover on the mooring.
The cockpit cover was a bit more challenging. First it wasn't a kit. And second, I didn't know exactly what the relationship was between the stored boom hieght and the toe rails. So Laura could only really create the main portion of the cover until after we launched.
Thus began the seemingly endless trips back and forth to the mooring for cover fittings. Little by little progress was made but the cover hung like a bad suit. My idealistic whining was pretty much at a peak at this point. I just refused to drape a poorly fitting cover over Bolero. This cause just a bit fo tension. Me being picky as hell and pretty much trashing all of Laura's hard work but not really meaning to. I just wanted an excellent solution. So after things sellted down we put our heads toghether and we found that by adding an additional seam everything fell into place.
We are both exceptionally pleased with the final result.
Lessons Learned
We weren't absolutely thrilled with the Sailrite kits that we used for the mainsail cover and jib bag. The few sizes fits many approaches just didn't seem to fit either our jib or mainsail.
Laura has a fair bit of sewing experience and we felt that if you can actually make a kit you probably have the skills to create something from scratch. Many colors of Sunbrella are available on ebay for a good price.
I hate zippers. Both of the Sailrite kits came with big plastic zippers. The create a nice clean look at the edge but they feel cheap to me. And I think they are hard on cold hands.
I have no idea what this canvas work would have cost to hire out. We assume a lot to justify all of Laura's time.
I already discussed our new, old, Pfaff 130 sewing machine and it work exceptionally well. That is once Laura put aside her Singer prejudices. It was just a work horse. A very good tool.
We had originally decided to have a jib bag and a mainsail cover that we could attach wings to for covering the cockpit when needed. But in the end Laura sewed up a separate cockpit cover and mainsail cover. We want a mainsail cover for those days and night when we are staying on the boat.
We ordered all of our supplies from Sailrite. A kits for the jib bag and for the mainsail cover and seperate supplies for the the cockpit cover since Laura was creating her own pattern.
Laura sewed up the jib bag first. I made one of these for my old Bluenose and we both agreed that this was a good first start. Unfortunately our battened jib was not happy with the standard jib bag shape from Sailrite. It works and it fits but it is just a bit awkward.
The mainsail was next. And anyone who saw my Bolero foredeck anchor locker mock-up on our living room floor will not be surprised that I wanted a mockup to help size the mainsail cover. So I created a mast track on the front porch and attached the boom and mainsail. This allowed Laura quick and easy fittings. And also allowed me to install the reefing system.
Laura was able to mostly finish the jib bag and mainsail cover prior to launch and all in all we are pretty happy with these.
And one more picture of the mainsail cover on the mooring.
The cockpit cover was a bit more challenging. First it wasn't a kit. And second, I didn't know exactly what the relationship was between the stored boom hieght and the toe rails. So Laura could only really create the main portion of the cover until after we launched.
Thus began the seemingly endless trips back and forth to the mooring for cover fittings. Little by little progress was made but the cover hung like a bad suit. My idealistic whining was pretty much at a peak at this point. I just refused to drape a poorly fitting cover over Bolero. This cause just a bit fo tension. Me being picky as hell and pretty much trashing all of Laura's hard work but not really meaning to. I just wanted an excellent solution. So after things sellted down we put our heads toghether and we found that by adding an additional seam everything fell into place.
We are both exceptionally pleased with the final result.
Lessons Learned
We weren't absolutely thrilled with the Sailrite kits that we used for the mainsail cover and jib bag. The few sizes fits many approaches just didn't seem to fit either our jib or mainsail.
Laura has a fair bit of sewing experience and we felt that if you can actually make a kit you probably have the skills to create something from scratch. Many colors of Sunbrella are available on ebay for a good price.
I hate zippers. Both of the Sailrite kits came with big plastic zippers. The create a nice clean look at the edge but they feel cheap to me. And I think they are hard on cold hands.
I have no idea what this canvas work would have cost to hire out. We assume a lot to justify all of Laura's time.