cable luff in old blown out sail. need advice

I know it's junk, but I am stranded in Iowa on a landlocked lake.
This sail has a cable, wire luff. The sail has a very deep cord, and only sails side ways and down wind. It is over powered, in strong winds. It has zero upwind as the fabric is stretched out.
I need some practice reworking sails, and got a sewing machine.
If I cut out the cable, would it have some up wind ability. Thanks

 

usually the luff of the jib is tensioned along the wire like in the attached image.
You could try to tension the sail cloth before cutting the luff wire permanently - I don't know if it will help.

Cheers, Hans

 

yes, you're awsome.

The ends had sail cloth sewn and seizing twine, covering the adjustable, cable attachment.
Thank for the help.

 

Don't cut the luff wire. Rework the fabric. The wire did not blow out, the fabric did. You may need to re-seam the whole sail including the broad seams and the luff curve, and probably do a bit of work on the leech curve. That is not as casual job but it is do-able. A better option would be to get new fabric and build a new sail.

 

Yeah, the seams need to be busted open and recut. This isn't that uncommon of a good, but stretched sail. I'd agree this isn't a faint of heart job and difficult to do if you can't figure out where to resew, for the appropriate shapes. Lastly, usually this sort of thing is dependant on the condition and qually of the cloth. Re-seaming old fabric generally doesn't make a good sail. The amount of work is about the same as making a new sail to the same dimensions.

 

Fun little sailing canoe. The leading edge of the jib is pretty critical because the jib is the leading edge of the entire rig and does most of the work. I know your not racing, but you will still have a lot more fun if it sets right.

PAR is right as usual, and it would be just as easy to make a sail as repair this one properly. The easiest of all would be to find an old discarded jib from a racing class with a similar sized jib.

But if you would like to experiment a little, which I think is what you want to do, you could try replacing the entire leading edge. I am not sure what sail material you have there. Is that an old cotton sail. Very cool if it is. Anyhow, it is tricky to get the luff curve right, but do the best you can. If the cloth or webbing is add is stiff enough it can replace the wire rope. If not, you can add the wire rope back again, either internally if you left a sleeve for it, or externally if you want to add some hanks, which can be simple cloth hanks with snaps.

I think using Dacron might be expensive, but you might be able to find some thin polyester webbing from a fabric store or hardware store. To test the luff curve just tack it or pin it in a few places, then a few more and test it again before you sew it. Maybe use some glue before you sew it. I am not sure what people do. I know what sailmakers do, but I am not sure what DIY sailmakers might do. It would be fun to innovate.

 

If that is cotton, and you find or make a Dacron or polyester jib to take its place, you could probably make a lot of very nice things from old Dacron sail cloth. If you don't some local seamstress might love to get their hands on it.

Do you know what sort of boat the sails came from, or was it always a sailing canoe rig?

 

It does look awfully like a cotton sail... If it is cotton then the only thing that's worth trying is to take the luff up a bit as you've already done. Trying to resew it will definitely be diminishing returns.
I'd concur that you'd be better off seeing if you can find a s/h sail. As long as its pretty much the right length up the luff getting the position of the clew altered ought not cost very much money.
Post the 3 dimensions and see if anyone can suggest a likely candidate source for a sail.

 

Thanks for all the help. It is dacron, polyester, medium weight

It is not cotton, I resewed the leach on its matching main sail. The fabric is pretty to up stuff.
I only need it for the first few months, until the winds calm down.

 

Part of the problem is that the sail material has lost its shape but is attached solidly to the wire luff at the head AND the tack. I know this problem. I had a genoa that sailed about as good as a patio umbrella.

There may be an easier fix. Some dinghy jibs are only attached to the wire luff at the sail's head. The tack is free to slide on the wire luff. Use a downhaul or Cunningham to tension the sail luff independent of the wire.

I'm not smart enough to make up this stuff.

 

The other thing you could try is switching to sail ties and make the forestay external to the sail. Then you could adjust the sail ties to correct the luff curve, as well as adjusting the luff tension.

 

A Cunningham could be a quick fix. You might try putting a grommet in the luff of the jib a few inches up from the tack, and lashing between the grommet and the eye in the cable to tension the luff of the sail.