Sailrite news for UK

[lustyd]

Just a public service announcement, Solentsew at Port Solent have restarted selling Sailrite machines and accessories. I spoke to someone in the shop recently and she said they can order pretty much any of the sailrite stuff as they just bulk order through Sailrite. They're still not cheap, but cheaper than adding customs charges and dealing with import yourself, and certainly easier to buy and get support.

Sailrite Sewing Machine | Solent Sewing Machines

 

[sarabande]

About time too ! Now all I need to do is to sell my earlier version and order a new one ....

 

[billyfish]

About time too ! Now all I need to do is to sell my earlier version and order a new one ....

How much for a earlier version

 

[Graham376]

I've had a Sailrite for many years, good machine but restricted area under the arm. These days if replacing, I would go for one of the Chinese ones with longer arm, most likely made in the same factory.

 

[geem]

I've had a Sailrite for many years, good machine but restricted area under the arm. These days if replacing, I would go for one of the Chinese ones with longer arm, most likely made in the same factory.

We borrowed a Sailrite to sew through some perspex. Its about 1mm thick and used for our centre window in the sprayhood. Our 70 year old Singer doesn't have a walking foot so we needed the Sailrite and our friends had one we could use. The Perspex is super slippy.
The first thing we noticed was how incredible heavy it is. The second thing was how large it is. We thought our Singer was a lump but its nothing compared to the Sailrite.
We wanted to sew the new window with Tenara. My wife spent the morning trying to get the tension correct for Tenara but she couldn't set it up. She sewed in the end with V92.
By comparison, we can swap from V92 to Tenara easily with the old Singer.
Our friends were selling their boat and offered it to us for half what they paid for it only 18 months earlier. We declined. Too big, too heavy and a little disappointed in the performance. Since we keep the sewing machine onboard we would have had to build a locker for it nearly twice the size of the current sewing machine locker

 

[lustyd]

I've had a Sailrite for many years, good machine but restricted area under the arm. These days if replacing, I would go for one of the Chinese ones with longer arm, most likely made in the same factory.

They may well be, but they lack the refinement of many of the parts SR replace in house, they lack the excellent support, and they lack the extensive learning materials produced by Sailrite which personally I think are worth the extra money to support such a great company.

A longer arm would be nice, but it's certainly manageable. What I'd really like is the WorkerB replacement motor to slow the darned thing down a bit!

 

[lustyd]

tension correct for Tenara but she couldn't set it up

Possibly not threaded correctly. They even got it wrong on the Sailrite video for threading the machine. The thread needs to go through the various tensioiners, de-twister, and most importantly the hole above the needle.

Yes, they are large, but the flight case makes them one of the few you can throw in the bottom of a cockpit locker without worry when things land on top. They're also one of the few who specify which inverters do and don't work with the different motors, which is a nice bit of boaty support. Pure sinewave don't work with their new DC motors, they require less sophisticated ones

 

[Graham376]

They may well be, but they lack the refinement of many of the parts SR replace in house, they lack the excellent support, and they lack the extensive learning materials produced by Sailrite which personally I think are worth the extra money to support such a great company.

A longer arm would be nice, but it's certainly manageable. What I'd really like is the WorkerB replacement motor to slow the darned thing down a bit!

The Sailrite instructional videos are all on Youtube F.O.C. Ours is about 13 years old and runs fine on 350W Sterling pure sine wave inverter.

 

[PCUK]

They may well be, but they lack the refinement of many of the parts SR replace in house, they lack the excellent support, and they lack the extensive learning materials produced by Sailrite which personally I think are worth the extra money to support such a great company.

A longer arm would be nice, but it's certainly manageable. What I'd really like is the WorkerB replacement motor to slow the darned thing down a bit!

Fit a bigger mainwheel available from various Chinese suppliers for peanuts.

 

[lustyd]

The Sailrite instructional videos are all on Youtube F.O.C. Ours is about 13 years old and runs fine on 350W Sterling pure sine wave inverter.

Yes they are, but it's nice to support the company making them rather than use them anyway and buy a cheapo machine elsewhere

 

[lustyd]

Fit a bigger mainwheel available from various Chinese suppliers for peanuts.

I have the big wheel, it's nowhere near as useful as the WorkerB with its speed dial. With the DC motor the dial can allow you to sew one stitch a second with the pedal all the way down, while still letting the machine operate at full speed when needed. It also benefits from better startup torque

 

[geem]

Possibly not threaded correctly. They even got it wrong on the Sailrite video for threading the machine. The thread needs to go through the various tensioiners, de-twister, and most importantly the hole above the needle.

Yes, they are large, but the flight case makes them one of the few you can throw in the bottom of a cockpit locker without worry when things land on top. They're also one of the few who specify which inverters do and don't work with the different motors, which is a nice bit of boaty support. Pure sinewave don't work with their new DC motors, they require less sophisticated ones

It was threaded correctly. As soon as we reverted to V92 thread, it worked.
If you leave a sewing machine in a cockpit locker, expect it to rust. This machine had rust on the stainless steel parts and it was kept in the saloon of our friends boat. They were disappointed in its build quality. My wife is an expert when it comes to sewing. She has made stackpacks, dinghy chaps, outboard covers, cockpit cushions, beanbags, a life raft cover, fuel can covers, sun covers and reupholstered the 16 saloon cushions, etc. We have two sewing machines onboard. She has even repaired the spinnaker halfway across the Atlantic. She didn't want the Sailrite

 

[doug748]

I can't see any mention of the Solent Leisure Pro on the website which may mean they have discontinued it. Shame, as I recall, it was a longer arm version of the Sailrite type but slightly more affordable.