Shredded spinnaker

M

Mikedefieslife

Well-Known Member
Joined
8 Aug 2016
Messages
579
Location
On a boat
Visit site
Since the sail makers I've sent images to haven't bothered to respond I'm guessing this spinnaker is beyond repair. I didn't much care the material and design anyway. I'm guessing it was also past it's use-by date now.

Worth holding on to, repurposing for something, or just bin it? There are a couple of nice 2m long tears, not on seams either.


253fc72d-7b0f-4868-ad07-424f5a4e48b7.jpg5cc1dbd5-173d-4f2a-b115-2cff4cc794f6.jpg
 
Don’t know your location, but I took a pretty shredded spinnaker into Suffolk Sails in Woodbridge some years ago and although they queried the sense of repair, when I said I needed it for the following weekend they did a pretty good job.
 
Dependswhat you want from it.
You could buy some cheap 'kite' fabric on ebay and patch it.
A spare kite for training, for about the price of 3 drinks and a couple of hours on the sewing machine.

Main thing is to find out what started the tear and tape it or whatever?

Or you might get a few quid for it on ebay, if we didn't have a suitable cruising/training kite I'd be happy to buy a ripped one and have a go at fixing it, if it was very cheap.
It's nice to have a gash spinnaker that won't cause any upset if it gets destroyed training or cruising.

But if it was really tired and mis-shapen before it ripped, maybe it really has had it.
Dead spinnakers don't have many uses, shade in a conservatory maybe? dust cover?
Crafts teacher might be grateful for it?
 
Mikedefieslife;6973545 [ATTACH=CONFIG said:
81798[/ATTACH]View attachment 81799
Click to expand...



Still looks a bit crispy to me so maybe not that old. My local sailmaker put a new panel in for £50, off season, so you might get lucky.

Depends on the size as well, if it's a £2000 pound sail then the fix is nothing. If you sail a Hurley 18 then you might want to get something else or have a go yourself.
 
I kept a 20+ year old kite going for 3 years after it left only the tapes flying when it was hit by an AWB broaching gust. Sticky spinnaker tape and a zig-zag sewing machine are your friends but eventually it will reach the point where a "Do not resuscitate" label is the kindest way.
The crisp-packet crackling sound of a new kite is almost worth the money in itself and definitely psyches out the opposition. Pity it doesn't last long.
 
awol said:
I kept a 20+ year old kite going for 3 years after it left only the tapes flying when it was hit by an AWB broaching gust. Sticky spinnaker tape and a zig-zag sewing machine are your friends but eventually it will reach the point where a "Do not resuscitate" label is the kindest way.
The crisp-packet crackling sound of a new kite is almost worth the money in itself and definitely psyches out the opposition. Pity it doesn't last long.
Click to expand...
Psyching them out by overtaking them with a kite made of tape and patches is fun too!

A lot depends on the cost and availability of something better.
 
Spinnakers do lose their toughness with age and UV. So it is likely that the fabric is too old to repair. However if you are so inclined you can repair it on an ordinary sewing machine using polyester thread. You can add adhesive repair cloth then sew.
or you can fold over the repair area to sew a seam or dart. If you do the latter you may need to fold or hem the line of the tear from one edge to the other ie top bottom or side to side to avert a tightness at the repair. Fold over the edge tape as well. ol'will
 
Cut it down to make a small triangular sun screen for the foredeck or a large windsccoop for for hatch if all else failes or try making a small sail for downwind sailing a paddle board Or inflatable etc?
 
ashtead said:
Cut it down to make a small triangular sun screen for the foredeck or a large windsccoop for for hatch if all else failes or try making a small sail for downwind sailing a paddle board Or inflatable etc?
Click to expand...

Wind scoop might be a winner. ;)

I don't sew myself. It would need two new panels about 2m in length each to repair. I don't think you can repair such massive tears mid panel as then the stress is in the wrong place. These two tears are easily big enough to fit a fully grown man through.
 
Mikedefieslife said:
I don't sew myself. It would need two new panels about 2m in length each to repair. I don't think you can repair such massive tears mid panel as then the stress is in the wrong place. These two tears are easily big enough to fit a fully grown man through.
Click to expand...

5m of sticky spinnaker tape is about £6 (in a variety of colours), polyester thread is a couple of drinking vouchers. Beg, borrow or otherwise procure a zig-zag sewing machine (or find someone who has and who can) and go for it. You have nothing to lose and you may learn a useful skill.
 
Mikedefieslife said:
Wind scoop might be a winner. ;)

I don't sew myself. It would need two new panels about 2m in length each to repair. I don't think you can repair such massive tears mid panel as then the stress is in the wrong place. These two tears are easily big enough to fit a fully grown man through.
Click to expand...

You have to ask yourself what it will cost to replace the kite and whether it will meet your needs when you've had a go at it.
In some dinghy classes I have bought hlaf tidy kites for club racing, for £50 or so. Not worth going too far to repair something in that case.
If the kite is otherwise good and it's going to cost you north of £500 to replace it like for like, then it's more likely worth fixing.
My mum and I repaired a 505 kite that a full grown man had indeed been through!

A good sailmaker will probably whack in nearly a whole panel.
I would suggest it's better to wander up to a loft and show it to the man if possible.

But don't be put off an amateur repair.
Kite material is relatively stretchy, mmuch more tolerant of your repair not being mm perfect that a jib or main.
Ideally use a multistep zigzag, but any zigzag will do.
Ballpoint needle helps.
 
Its all repairable. Did you get an asymmetric as well or just used the symmetric she came with? If you have money burning a hole in your pocket for a new one it may be worth buying an asymmetric and just repairing the damaged symmetric - as that is only good really from 150 back the age and stretch are less important - it just fills up like a bag.

I ran both asymmetric and symmetric on the boat but had only just bought the asymmetric the year before I sold her so I sold that separately (it was around £3K as I recall and was huge and very light for the Med - not even any shackles just dynema lines) so if you've not got one yet I'd spend the money on that as it opens up a lot more points of sail and just get a couple of new panels sewn in the old one - if it lasts across the pond then it will have been worth the time :)
 
Mikedefieslife said:
Since the sail makers I've sent images to haven't bothered to respond I'm guessing this spinnaker is beyond repair. I didn't much care the material and design anyway. I'm guessing it was also past it's use-by date now.

Worth holding on to, repurposing for something, or just bin it? There are a couple of nice 2m long tears, not on seams either.


View attachment 81798View attachment 81799
Click to expand...

I've definitely sent bigger snafus than that to the sailmaker and got usable sails back...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top