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I am nearing the end of construction of my Eastport Pram!
Now I need a sail.
I'm a plan builder and have made the entire thing out of Home Depot lumber and plywood.
I'm not keen on dropping another $500 to get the dacron sail and am looking into making a polytarp sail.
(yes I know the dacron will last longer, etc)
Wondering if anyone has experience making a polytarp sail?
Specifically, I am wondering how to go about measuring the sail to cut.
I have seen some folks simply lay out the spars to get the measurement/shape for the sail while others have sail plans and can actually measure it out.
That brings up another question: I don't have any plans for the sail that CLC sells for the EPPram–can I use a sail/shape different from the one that CLC sells? I.e. how tightly coupled is the boat or build to the type of sail you use?
Appreciate any tips.
1 reply:
RE: Polytarp Sail
» Submitted by Laszlo - Fri, 6/7/24 » 8:15 PM
Nathan,
The line drawings are from the CLC EP page. The bottom image is dimensioned so you can work out the scale for the top one, then use that scale to get the rough dimensions of the sail. The top one states that the sail should be 42 sq ft in area.
The top image also shows the seams and reinforcement. The 3rd image shows the pocket you need to have in the sail to give it a good areodynamic shape. Boatdesign.net has 4 pages of discussion about building a polytarp standing lug and how to get the correct shape.
If that's not enough to get you started, Duckworks magazine had many articles about building polytarp sails. Google will help find them all.
Sailrite used to sell the dacron sail kits. Everything was pre-cut and you just sewed them together. I don't know if they still do that. It'd be worth a check. Much cheaper than a finished sail, much better than polytarp.
Oh yeah, click on the pictures to enlarge them.
Laszlo