Torn Mainsail!

My mainsail tore at the seam just aft of the lower slug. This is a very high-stress area of the sail, so I couldn't let it go without repair. Here's how I fixed it. First, here's the tear.

There was no way to securely sew that weakened fabric back to the seam, so I knew I was going to have to make a patch.


As you can see, though, there isn't enough room between the seam and the existing grommet for a patch. Besides, Vince, from Tidewater, who is a sailmaker, told me that I needed to move that slug towards the mast by 1/2 to 3/4 inch. This means the slug and grommet had to come out for the repair.


The first thing I did after removing the grommet was to realign the torn part of the sail with the seam and boltrope, then hold it in place with dacron sail tape. There is an identical piece of tape on the other side of the sail.


Then I made a patch out of 6.5 oz dacron sailcloth. I hemmed the edges using a zigzag setting on a Husqvarna sewing machine. Then I used 1/2" basting tape to sort of hold the patch around the bolt rope so I could sew it onto the sail. It didn't work very well, as the stiff patch kept pulling loose from the sail and basting tape. I hand-sewed a whipstitch seam just inside the bolt rope, then decided that was too difficult and fed it into the machine to actually sew it down to the sail. I was using V92 polyester sail thread and a number 18 Universal needle.


Once I had the patch sewn down securely, I used a #4 hole cutter to make a hole, then installed a #4 spur grommet.


That was the hard part. After the grommet was in, I reattached the slug using 1/2 nylon webbing that was wrapped through three times (as recommended by "The Sailmaker's Apprentice"). A few quick stitches and the sail was ready to go.