Stretched Out Sail

[seandepagnier]

so.. I was sailing from napier to wellington, and there is no shelter for 200 miles, but very unpredictable weather. I did my best to stay out of it, sailing backwards at times to avoid high winds, but I managed to have to beat in 40 knots. In any case, it was night time and I couldn't see that my halyard got wrapped around a shroud so when I pulled it tight, it wasn't, and the sail got stretched pretty bad.

Has anyone fixed this problem? Can I cut away the stretched parts of the sails and put in patches? Is there a method or way to stretch the sail back or some way to use winches to reset the weave? I was thinking about moving the hanks to different positions but this would only slightly mitigate the issue. Maybe it isn't that important?

[daddle]

A sailmaker may be able to set it right.

[forsailbyowner]

Not an expert but know that once you stretch a sail past its point of rebound its not going to return to its original dimensions. That being said ive improved sails performance by taking darts out of the material to remove wrinkles. Dont know if the sail was built wrong in the first place or stretched but the repair involved pulling the slack out and marking the material where it held shape well. then coming back and sewing the darts in. The jib in question now is wrinkle and flutter free even if its maybe not the absolutely ultimate shape.