sail woe for a catboat

I'm building a catboat and want to buy a used sail for it. I don't have a lot of money to spend, so the sail has to be pretty cheap.

My boat is about the same size as a Beetlecat, but I imagine it may be hard to track a Beetle sail down and it would either be worn out or too expensive.

So looking for a used sail, I come to a site with a gaff sail(http://www.minneysyachtsurplus.com/mainsails.html), but the sail is a little small. Just estimating the sail area, it's going to run somewhere around 80 sq ft, which is a little small.

The price is right at $95.

So what would you do? Should I go with a slightly smaller sail, or would you keep looking for something else?

(I need sail dimensions so I can know where to put the centerboard)

 

Given your centerboard location is a show-stopper in terms of getting the hull completed, I'd place it where it should be assuming optimal sail & rig size and placement. You can always get a new sail to match the rig and boat, but it is not easy to move a centerboard trunk to match a new sail.

Doing this will require you have some flexibility in placing the mast step. By allowing the mast to move it's foot aft, you can get away with the (cheap and) available smaller sail for now and later on, just move the rig forward some to re-balance the boat for a larger rig. Allowing some flexibility in mast step placement is not a bad thing in a new catboat design anyways - unless the design is perfect, it usually takes some tweaking to get things right. Catboat helm balance is critical as the huge mail sail can make sailing with an unbalanced helm a nightmare. You will probably have to leave a larger elongated hole at the mast partners to allow fore/aft placement, but this gets you on the water and keeps the budget reasonable.

YMMV,

--
CutOnce

 

Contact the International Yacht Restoration School in Newport, RI. They restore Beetle cats, and also build new ones. Everything they restore and build is used on the water, so there very well may be some old sails they are willing to get rid of. Worth a shot. IYRS: http://www.iyrs.org/.

Eric

 

You can look for a used jib or main and cut the top off. I have done that many times.

 

Most any sail supply will have used sails taken in trade, repaired and for resale. The usual suspects are:

Atlantic Sail traders > usedsails.com <
Masthead Sail > mastheadsailinggear.com <
the Sail Warehouse . sailwarehouse.com <
Second Wind Sails > secondwindsails.com <

 

I've done this too, more than once. I've also used Tyvek(tm) house wrap and duct tape to make a sail that lasted for months of use. Blue tarps work as do painter's dropcloths for making a cheap, interim sail. No need for a zigzag stitch machine as a home sewing machine works great for this.

 

Bacon Sails in Annapolis has been dealing in used sails for fifty years or so. http://www.baconsails.com/

 

Modifying another sail is an option, but my sewing skills are pretty horrible.

The thing I notice about polytarp sales is by the time you finish the sail, it's cost you $50-$70 and it only lasts a season (if taped.) Add in the price of a cheap sewing machine and all the effort sewing it up, you're better off buying a used sail a lot of the time.

 

Thanks for the help guys.

I'm going to give myself a couple weeks to search a sail down.

Thinking about it, a smaller sail wouldn't be such a bad thing. A Beetle weighs something like 500 pounds while my boat will weight maybe 70. So I can get away with a sail area reduction.