Sail Repair 

Basic sail repair isn’t too big of an operation. It can be done by yourself if necessary, but it is usually worth saving the time and effort involved by having a professional fix it for you . $30 to $60 dollars for a whole panel is pretty cheap, will look better and last longer than an emergency repair. But if it is an emergency, and you are at the end of some road in Baja, a little self-reliance can go along way.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

vinyl tape best, packing tape, stickers or duct tape
dacron tape, single and double sided if you can find it                      note: cloth and WindShear sealant works in its place
rack straps
sharp scissors
heavy thread or dental floss
several heavy needles, and thimble or pliers and maybe some band aids
extra sail cloth, monofilm or x-ply film
cleaning solution; ski base cleaner, acetone, liquid dish soap, alcohol
cigarette lighter for sealing cloth edges might come in handy
clean, flat, dry, and windless work area or table

PREP:

Once a suitable work space has been created, its time to play Dave Ezzy.  Fear not, sail repair is fairly simple if you aren’t too vain about your sail. First thing is to make sure it is clean and free of any grease, dirt or slime from your last session or adhesives won’t stick. This can be done with the aforementioned  cleaning stuff. Remove all battens and cambers near the damaged area to be repaired, and now your trusty 5.0 is ready for surgery in your temporary O.R.  Let us begin.

SURGERY ON SAIL PANELS:

Holes or Tears isolated in Monofilm or Monofilm laminate panels.

This one is easy. Lay out the sail and make sure the tears are isolated to only monofilm materials. Cut out two sections of  vinyl tape the length of the repair  plus a few inches on each end  for isolating the ends of the rip. With the sail flat on a firm surface, its time to start taping. You want to get the two edges of the tear as close together as possible to maintain the proper shape and load disbursement of the panel. Peel back one corner of the repair tape, and stick it on the sail in line with the tear and near its origin. Slowly peel back the rest of the tape backing while working the tape onto the sail. Keep the tear near the center of the tape for maximum strength. Repeat on other side. Use several overlapping pieces if necessary to follow the tear. If you don’t have vinyl tape, other types will do. However, packing tape doesn’t do well being rolled up and will begin to unstick after a few sessions. Good old duct tape to the rescue. Sticks well to monofilm and sail cloth, and lasts longer than packing tape, but the edges will peel back over time, leaving sticky goo all over your sail.  Professional sail repair people wont touch it if it has duct tape residue.

If you are taping a tear that goes across a whole panel or along a batten don’t expect just tape to hold it too long, especially in the waves. Maybe put some longish strips of tape perpendicular to the tear for more contact area and greater strength. Packing tape is best for this since its less stretchy, but then doesn’t stick as well, so it’s your choice. Vinyl lasts a long time, so track some down if you can. It lasts the longest and looks the cleanest. For seam failure along a batten pocket and if you have the materials, stitch a strip of Dacron tape on top of the vinyl or packing tape along the original stitching.  One good wave could still put you back on the beach so do clean work and hope for the best. 

Multipe Monofilm or Monofilm laminate panel failure.
OK, this one is a little more involved. If you blew out more than one panel, congratulate yourself for a job well done. Now settle in to repair mode, this could take a while. If the tear is across panel(s) and shaping seams follow the instructions above but pay careful attention to where the tape touches the seams or batten pockets. If the tear ends at a seam or batten pocket, put the repair tape across the cloth area and onto the adjoining monofilm panel. Leave the battens in while taping, or it will lift off the sail when you next use it Again, spend time making sure that the tape is worked thoroughly onto the monofilm AND cloth parts of the sail. The adhesion won’t be as good as on the film or last as long, but you’ve got to try. Lay some Dacron tape over the areas of repair tape over the cloth portion of the sail and stitch. Without the Dacron tape the stitches may just pull through the tape.

Vinyl Panels
Vinyl is typically found in the window area. You know its vinyl because its stretchy and soft to the touch, and remains clear longer than monofilm does. Tears here can be tough since you are dealing with a material that constantly stretches and is designed to do so. So, instead of a bigger hammer, use more tape. Probably best to use vinyl tape or duct tape. And lots of it. Packing tape has no give to it and is the least adherent of the bunch so it is not advised for vinyl repairs. Repairs here may need frequent attention due to the nature of the materials. If the tear in the vinyl has progressed into a cloth or monofilm area, look at the above suggestions on how to deal with your specific situation. Luckily, most sails with vinyl windows are surrounded by panels of x-ply or monofilm laminate material. This is good because the line laminated into the x-ply is very strong and prevents rips from growing. Repair tape, Dacron tape and stitching will be the best option for this repair. And don’t carry the sail on your head afterwards or you might be back on the beach sooner than you'd like.

OTHER REPAIRS:

Hmm, check the tool box and get creative. Here is where you can try the other materials listed at the top and see what will work for you in your situation. How good the sailing is will help you decide what other stuff in your car has value as sail repair material.

Tears in cloth, or Patching monfilm (same idas and methods)
Usually tears in the cloth of newer sails involve tears in film panels as well, so follow the above guidance for the monofilm parts, but you want to overlap the tape onto the cloth as much as possible as well. So, some extra Mylar or Dacron cloth would be handy right now huh? How about that pocket you never use on your gear or quiver bag? Maybe the seat out of that old harness? Maybe what’s left of your third backup 5.0 that you exploded yesterday.  Try to find something with windsurfing or surf related cloth and cut out a piece that suits your needs, even board-short material will work, Levi's get kinda heavy when wet. Now that you’ve got some cloth to patch with, break out the double sided Dacron sail tape, or any kind of double sided tape you have. Choose which side of the sail  to affix your repair, and apply the tape around the tear and one strip perpendicular to and across the tear itself. Cut a patch out of some extra material that is the shape of the taped area, and slightly larger for more working room, after all you are not a sail maker. So now that you have all the materials, and the area is taped off, its time to stitch. Look at the stitching on your sail. Lots of them huh? That is what you are now going to do now young Skywalker. No thread? Use dental floss, it's easy to work with, strong, cheap and readily available, so hopefully you have some on your adventure away from civilization. No thread or floss? The core strands in you downhaul line will work, or maybe the thread that used to hold on the pocket of your gear bag you just cut off could work.  There are generally two types of stitching on sails. A straight looking stitch that looks like the hem on your shorts, and one that looks like mountain, the latter being better but more time consuming. Now with the pride of an oral surgeon, begin sewing.  Lots of stitches. Around the perimeter of the patch and the on the tape across the tear too.When you have had enough, you must be done and there is only one way to find out how well you did, so go sail it.

Head-cap Failure
This happens when either the adjusting buckle broke or when the webbing or rope up there fails or rips out of the head of the sail. The first questions are where did it fail and do I still have a head-cap. Depending on the answers to those questions, consider the following:
If it was just the plastic buckle that broke, and you are in luck. You can make an impromptu head cap out of the remaining strap to hold the tip of the mast. This works, but now the entire vertical load is on only one set of stitching and a knot not found in any book, so you may want to stay within swimming distance of the car. It is usually possible to break off the remainder of the old buckle and thread the existing head-cap webbing through the loop that used to hold the buckle and tie it off. If it was just your webbing that failed, run some new webbing (rack strap) through the buckle and or  loop some extra downhaul line or through the loop on the head of the sail and then attach that length of whatever you used to what is left of the original strap. Don’t forget the head-cap and where it needs to be, so place knots accordingly. If you have an old rope style head cap, and it breaks, just get new rope or splice some more in.

IF, the webbing loop sewn into the luff of the sail has pulled out on both sides, or had only one attachment point to begin with, you’re done. Not much you can do here. The head cap webbing is sewn into the luff sleeve for several inches down into the sail.  Even if you picked all the stitches to remove the top of the luff from the top panel, ripped out the old luff webbing and sewed on a new bit, it probably wouldn’t hold. And the tequila cost of all that stitching might not be worth it. Plus getting the needle through that much material is not easy. Of course if you have an industrial Bernina sewing machine and table in the trunk next to a portable generator, its a whole different story.

Mast sleeve tears, scuffs and nicks
Rig it and sail it. Most damage here looks worse than it is. Just be careful threading your mast in the luff sleeve, you don’t want to make the damage any worse but there is no loss in performance on this stuff. Even if you have broken a mast and torn the luff with the nice shap carbon shards, it doesn't usually require fixing beofre the next session. Melt down the frayed edges of the cloth with a lighter or a hot knife to slow down their inevitable growth. Be careful though, the cloth will catch fire if it gets hot enough, and any monofilm or laminate will melt and shrink like a candy bar wrapper. Only when the tears get to be a foot or two long is it really an issue. To repair this the luff sleeve must be removed, patched and reattached by  a repair professional, so like I said;  just  rig it and sail it.

Batten Pockets
For minor blemishes, see above tip on minor mast sleeve damage. If the batten is bulging out of the pocket you have some options. The quick one is to lay strips of cloth or vinyl tape on the damaged side of the pocket and sew some loops around the batten candy cane stripe style. If that won’t do, find some suitable cloth or monofilm / laminate, double sided tape and thread. 

Broken Batten
How to deal with this depends on where it broke. If the batten broke off in a camber inducer, remove the cam and then remove the batten piece from it. Reinsert the cam and batten into the sail and see if you can get enough tension since battens usually have an inch or so extra length to them. If the tip of the batten has broken near the luff on a wave sail, or a pocket that the cam slips over, it’s a little different. Sometimes you can work the batten remnant out of the pocket, but not always.  Make a small cut across the batten pocket itself near the end of the pocket and try to retrieve the broken piece with some needle nose pliers. Remember to use flame or very hot metal to seal off you incision or else the material may fray. You can always ram the new batten in along side of the broken piece and see if it is still long enough, or if  the batten is too short, raid the rest of your quiver for one. There must be something close in there, don’t worry too much about thickness and stiffness, set your aspirations low, and just try to find something the right length.  If it was the top or second batten down batten tension is less important, so apart from a few wrinkles you probably won’t notice too much difference. However, if it is one of the bottom three battens, you need to find a way to fix it so it will tension. Without it there will be a noticeable loss of power in your sail, after all that’s where most of your go comes from. If you want to cut a batten down, mark the length you want and use a hacksaw to cut off the stiff end, or shorten the "tube" part of tubular battens. Cut about half way through from one side, turn the batten over and complete the cut. Finish with a file or sandpaper to remove splinters.

Broken Batten Tensioner
If it was a screw type tensioner, just borrow one from another sail, or maybe from a  less important batten and jury rig that batten so that it won‘t fall out. If the screw is stripped out, try a fin screw or footstrap screw. You aren’t going to make it any worse. Be careful not to strip out the head of the tensioner screw because there isn’t much you can do there unless you can remove the old screw and replace it. Occasionally the webbing or line that holds the tensioner in place fails. Maybe rig up something on the remaining webbing or line, or sew the pocket shut. 
If you have an older sail with the buckle type tensioner that failed, try tying off the tensioner strap somehow to where the buckle used to be. Maybe with some extra line, sailboat shackle, key ring?  If none of that works, get out a sacrificial sail with buckles. Its time to carefully cut off one tensioner to use on the sail you are fixing. Rotate the buckle on the sacrificial sail 90 degrees so that the bar that the buckle is attached to the sail with is as exposed as possible. Now cut through that bar with a  hacksaw, or knife if you are patient and careful. Work the buckle off the webbing loop, and make a second cut on the same bar to make a channel. With the debris from the old broken buckle removed form the good sail, slide the altered buckle onto the webbing loop on the sail where the old buckle was. Make sure to mount the buckle the right way, then just thread the tensioning webbing and get  back out there. If the webbing itself has given out, maybe try to replace the tensioning webbing by stitching on something you have laying around.

Grommet Failure
This is about as bad as it gets. You are pretty much hanging with the dog and a beer when this happens. Or just rig big and go. But your sail will probably be seen next as a shower curtain or tarp of some sorts. Or maybe reincarnated as patches for that 5.0 we were talking about earlier.

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