21 - Correcting the Sails

Having affixed most of the deck fixtures, it was finally time to step the masts.To this point in the build, I had temporarily mounted the masts on a stabilized piece of 2x4 which afforded me the opportunity to dry-fit the booms and sails. It was during this process that I discovered that the sails that came with the kit were a very poor fit once I had corrected all the hardware to the 1:44 scale that I had adopted for this build. This should not have come as a surprise, since I had known from the beginning that all the booms and masts were only an approximation to the correct size. Nothing to do but modify the sails accordingly,

The original sails in their relative positions.

Unfortunately, only a few of the sails could be salvaged and in six cases, new sails had to be crafted The fore sail and the main sail could be made to fit; the remaining sails had to be scrapped. Fortunately, I was able to source suitable material at a sewing shop. In fact, making the sails from scratch proved to be much easier than modifying the ones that came with the kit and I shortly had a full set of sails at my disposal.

For the record, here are pictures of the extent of the errors encountered. The paper template is the revised sail size,

Jib Topsail

Jib

Jumbo

Fore Gaff-Topsail

Fisherman's Staysail

Main Gaff-Topsail

Once the new sails were sewn and lines marked appropriately, I threaded the jibs and the jumbo onto the lines I intended to use for the corresponding stays in preparation for eventual rigging, once the masts were stepped.

Jibs attached to the stays.

Which I'll talk about in the next post.