Where can I buy sailcloth?

[ianat182]

Pleased to hear that Kayospruce have completed your order; I often recommend them(and their catalogue!!) to forumites and have always had good service with excellent prices, particularly on end of roll products -from which I made two sets of sailcovers and spray dodgers at a fraction of the commercial prices quoted,(and I still have enough left for another set of each). Not bad for £15!!

I live locally to their premises so no chore to visit 'on spec' occasionally.


ianat182

 

[fishermantwo]

Making your own sails in Australia is probably easier now than previously thanks to the internet. If your after a kit then sailrite.com will supply. I buy my materials from a friend who is a sailmaker but have bought sail cloth from the UK, thread off USA eBay. There is a bloke on eBay with the username alansecondsail who sells secondhand sails but also sells the bits and bobs but not cheap. His secondhand sails are excellent though and modifying one of these is often the way to go.
Still blokes about that glue and stitch their own racing dinghy sails.

 

[Neeves]

Interesting article on the sail factory in China. Neil Pryde moved their factory to China decades ago and Lee sails would (I'm guessing) have been around the same time. My understanding is the biggest (whatever that means) factory is in Sri Lanka.

The fact that to make a sail you need to apprentice and the fact that gargantuam factories are already well established 'offshore' would imply to me that the number of new apprentices in, say, the UK is not going to be large - not much of a career. Or not one I could recommend. So with the giant factories how are the likes of Bainbridge to survive in the UK. One might think they would be much more supportive of DIY.

The inevitable next step is sail cloth made in China (maybe someone will come up with a link to that as well!) but unless you race the exotics are not for us - at best we might use a laminate, which seems an ideal base from which to start as a sailcloth maker. It will be too late then for the likes of Bainbridge et al.

Obviously I'd be no use in the sailcloth industry, wrong ideas altogether!

Jonathan

 

[prv]

The inevitable next step is sail cloth made in China (maybe someone will come up with a link to that as well!)

According to the article linked above, "some" of the cloth they use is manufactured in China. Doesn't mention where the rest comes from.

Pete