For Sale: Sail Covers - Made to Order !

[blahman]

Hello all,

I am now offering high-quality sail covers custom made to your needs. I've seen and owned many sail covers from "canvas" guys and often the quality of work is poor, lacking fine detail in areas that make a sail cover easy to work with and durable enough to endure the rigors sailors demand of their canvas.

Features such as:

• Corner reinforcement for wear and UV resistance
• Polyester webbing binding for edge strength
• Extra-thick black polyester or Teflon (lifetime) thread for exposed areas
• RiRi lifetime zippers
• Sun covers for zippers, contact-point chafe protection
• Webbing straps for carrying
• Snaps for keeping zippers off the stays
• Many other options!}
• These are the sort of nitty-gritty details that enable covers and deckbags to last a long time!

I have recently completed cover sets for six Westsails, two Bristols, and a Tayana, all from word-of-mouth. I offer many options and supply you with a measuring sheet to ensure accurate fit for your particular boat. Alternatively, I can pattern from existing covers. I offer a wide variety of options, including stack-pack style covers/lazyjack setups, as well as traditional mainsail covers and foredeck bags. After completion, the covers are mailed via USPS priority mail to your door (or hatch) step.

While my products are of high quality, my prices are often lower than local, non-sailor canvas makers as I complete all work in my home and have negligible overhead. That means you get better covers, made by a sailor for sailors who want their covers to last.


Here are examples of the set of covers I constructed for our W32, Asia Marie.


Webbing edge bindings and zipper stops, zipper sun cover.


Vinyl-reinforced corner patches prevent chafe from sheets and halyards exiting foredeck bags.


Webbing lift handles at front and back of bags for easier handling.


All additions to covers are well reinforced to prevent fabric wear.


Snaps are used to prevent bag's zippers from riding on the wire.


Stackpacks make for easy mainsail handling and stowage.


Extra sun protection for the top of stackpack.


If you are interested in having some great sail covers built for your boat, please contact me.

Love, luck, and sweet coconuts,
Aaron Norlund

--
ps - As a plug to my cause, I am a musician preparing for graduate school admission auditions and am doing my best to avoid a "day job" so as leave ample, flexible time for practice and perhaps see my boat once in a while. I'm not looking to get rich via sewing, just to make enough to pay for my audition expenses!

[hglad]

Send me the measurements you would need to give me a price for sail covers. The boat is a Freedom 39 Pilot House and I will need covers for the Mainsail and Foresail.

Thanks,
Howard
SVSpartan at msn dot com

[blahman]

Another satisfied customer: new mainsail and boomed stays'l covers for a W32.



~A.

[g0twind]

Please send me the measurement template (kmhand at gmail dot com). I would much rather buy from/support someone on the forum than a random person on Ebay.

I will need a mainsail cover for a Paceship PY23.

Hopefully it wont be a problem if I can't get the measurements until spring....

[blahman]

A few more completed today:











~Aaron

[Randyonr3]

Just a couple hints from one canvas person to another.. when you overstitch the fabric, you work harden it, causing it to fail in a shorter time.
If you use white thread on everything, you will get beter UV protection.. When thread is dyed, its heat treated so the color sets withing the thread. colored thread has less protective properties than white thread that hasnt been heat treated.
Using the webbing around the edges sounds like a good idea but is just the oppisite as the webbing is a ploy formula and extensive rubbing or chaffing causes the webbing to turn to a hard plastic.. use small strips of leather instead.
You'll also find that a melted edge on your fabric dosent feel so good against the bare skin when you brush up against it.. a 3/4 inch binding would look finished and be a softer finish//
You ideas are good, but need a little refining..
I've been working with canvas for a number of years and its all a learning process..
Heres a coupe pictures of recent projects
And If I can give you any help in advice, feel free to contact me.........

[blahman]

Randy,

Thanks for the suggestions. I know from many of your other posts that you know what you're talking about! However, my experience has shown some difference in the longevity of certain things.

I've found that, while the acrylic binds do look and feel nice, they do not take chafe well at all, especially along the crease, and certainly no where near as well as polyester webbing. So for areas that will take consistent, light abrasion, or need extra strength, yet are inappropriate for heavy chafe patches (throat closures on masts, zipper edges, throats of jib bags, etc) the webbing works well. I haven't seen or experienced it hardening, but this is when using it in situations where acrylic binding has traditionally been used; it is not my material of choice for "chafe patches". In this capacity, I have found it to be superior to acrylic binding. The hot-knifed ends do require some shaping, just like the bitter end of line which has been hot-knifed. But like a line's end, if done well, it is strong and smooth.

As for thread color, I have also found black chemically bonded polyester thread marginally outlive its white variety. Chem bonded thread's colors are added while in a heated, liquid state, before the polyester is formed into filaments. You're correct in that regular polyester thread has color added afterward. However, chem bonded threads are mixed to be their color from the get-go. You can see the difference by melting the two types; a chem bonded thread will melt into a blob of whatever color plastic the thread is, whereas dyed threads will shed their color and leave two distinct areas of color in the blob of plastic that results (IE, Ultradee). Try it some time - and I would definitely suggest using a chemically bonded UV thread. I prefer American & Efird's SunStop. (They also have a nice PTFE thread - Solarane)

As for your work - it looks great! I don't have the time for bimini or enclosure work. I'll stick to making a few sail covers a month for folks who don't mind making some measurements and going the mail-order route. I leave the big projects to the folks who do enjoy it!

Thanks for your thoughts,
Aaron

[Chuckanut]

Hi I have a Islander 36, I need a main sail cover any ball-park on the cost, I would like a sail cover with out zippers, Just the turn buckle style thanks