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| Bob, bob, bobbin along |
I just realized that last sentence will be somewhat confusing to my foreign readers. Twenty years ago, it would have been confusing to me. But I had to learn nautical English, which seems to have little to do with standard English, so you will have to, too.
I learned about this handy device on Anything-sailing.com, a useful and somewhat less bombastic and more practical sailing forum I frequent. Available at the esteemed Lee Valley Tools for a far more reasonable price than had I bought it from, say, West Marine, the Speedy Stitcher seems, on first use (on otherwise good jeans worn through due to winter bike riding), to be a practical addition to the sailmaker's tackle box I've always carried. I actually like fabric repair and will occasionally make simple clothing. I find it calming, and, as a sailor, very useful going forward in the sense of applying chafe gear, patches and sail repairs. There's always make and mend aboard: you might as well have the right tools.
Mukluks? Maybe with built-in flotation.
3 comments:
Thank you Rhys. That device seems to be a very useful tool, much easier to use than a needle and thread.
Have you tried sail tape? I wonder how it would stick to a wet sail and how long it would last. I haven’t tried it, I still resort to antediluvian methods.
You mention sailing forums. There are quite a few out there, some inhabited by sofa sailors who seem to spend more time on the web than on the water. Which forums do you prefer?
It takes a little practice (and perhaps the viewing of the video a couple of times) to get the thread leading cleanly, but I think I've got it sussed. The awl aspect means you can push the needles (I've bought spares) more easily through several thicknesses.
I have tried sail tape. Maybe mine was old...didn't stick very well or for long. I tend to make an initial stitch to close the rip, and then I make a "sandwich" from two Dacron patches (which can be weakly sticky just to hold position). Then I stitch through the corners and separately stitch the perimeter. That will usually hold well and not distort the shape, and will serve until I have a sailmaker cut a new panel...or until I recycle a nicer sail.
There are a lot of sailing forums. I used to frequent Sailnet.com, but I found the armchair admiral situation, as you point out, too onerous to bear. I do frequent Cruisers' Forum, which I find at times very stuffy and very lacking in humour. But they do have a fairly high percentage of active cruisers (not just Florida daysailers who've seen dark clouds that one time), and of, interestingly to me, professional mariners like harbour masters, 100-tonners and merchant mariners/cruise ship staff.
That's the appeal to me: getting the input of people who actually work on the sea.
The only other one I read is anything-sailing.com, started, as you can read a few posts below, by my friend Alex, who as a semi-pro racer in Portugal, got exasperated by know-nothings more interested in barbeques than in big air.
That said, a lot of guys on these sites are some distance from water or from owning a boat of their choice. There's an element of cabin fever in some of them, and it's best to be selective in what threads you bother reading. Me, I've learned a lot on line I wouldn't have anywhere else...acquiring a "Speedy Stitcher" is only one example.
By the way, the old "alt.cruising.net" mailing list was FAR ruder than these moderated web-based lists. Except for "sailing-anarchy.com". That one's pretty well nothing but rude, despite the high percentage of fairly skilled racers there.
It's like going to a sports bar: It can be fun to drink beer and cheer for a team with friends, or at least the like-minded. But sometimes you just want to get out and PLAY the game...not watch!
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