Cheap Sails!

[BHOFM]

Doing some research in building my cheap sailboat, looking
at polytarps, house wrap, tarps from Wal-Mart.

Living in the poultry center of the world, I think I have come
up with the near perfect substitute for sail cloth!

The material for chicken house curtains! It is a reinforced poly
tarp material that is dimensional stable from 0 to 140`f! Retains
it's flexibility within the same range and is 100% UV resistance.

It is 80% transparent and comes in rolls from 6' to 14'
wide and is sold by the foot!

It is heavier that house wrap and lighter than Wal-Mart
tarps!

The best part, the 14' wide is $1.17 a running foot!

My main will be about 18'X10' and the jib of course a
bit smaller. So, 20' will do it or, $23.40!

There is also repair tape in the same material!

[Petros]

That sounds like great stuff. Do you know a brand name? What weight is it? Does it have a "rip-stop" look to it with little squares of reinforcing filaments? I may have seen something similar.

I would like to find it locally but if I went into a farm supply outlet and asked for "that chicken coop stuff" they would likely take me to the wrong dept. So finding a brand and a generic name for it would be helpful.

Can it be sewn, or is the tape strong enogh to make sails with?

I made some sails for a 14' sloop I built from salvaged lumber with Tyvek house wrap. It too cost about $1 per foot for a 9' wide roll, but I got almost a whole roll (100 ft) for $5 at a garage sail. It makes a pretty good sail, but it will stretch out in heavy weather and you get to advertise the brand of house wrap in large letters every time you use it.

sound like a good find.

[BHOFM]

This is very similar to house wrap. It is the color of the "clear"
plastic vapor barrier. It has the weave in it. As I said, it is
just a bit heavier than house wrap, but not as heavy as the
tarps at Wal-Mart. It has a seam on one edge so you will
loose a little in the width.

Just ask for chicken house curtain material!

It looks to me like when the sails are up in the bright sun it
will look like mylar.

Here is the site, it has the red and blue stripe on the edge like this:

http://swsalesco.com/index.htm

It is just down the road from our house! Look
at the bottom of their web page!

You use the same tape for seams as the house wrap and you
can sew it, the seam that comes in the edge is sewn!

The tape that has the same material as a backing is for
repairs or reinforcement.

It has no printing on it. I did not see a brand, it was a
very large roll, 500' I think!

[PAR]

What's it weight per square yard? Thread count? Fabric density? UV resistance? Is it a "breathable" fabric?

[lewisboats]

http://www.farmtek.com/farm/supplies...g102044cs.html

Interesting... might get some just to check it out. Up to 14+ ft wide

Steve

[Crag Cay]

Remember the clear parcel packing tape that has the 'strings' in it? It's great for making corners and running along load paths. I made a great Code zero with this stuff plus Tyvek house sheet.