What to do with old sail?

[Dr. D]

We bought our 2001 boat last July. She had a new main and genoa from 2009. While going through all the lockers and spaces, we found the original main. I doubt there would be a market for the sail as a replacement mainsail, but I am hesitant just to trash it.

OK, what do you do with an old sail? If we disassemble it, what could we do with the sections?

[Mariano]

You can take it to a good sailmaker and reburbish it, sew reinforsments and use as a storm sail. or just leave it on your dock with a FREE sing, your trash can be others fortune

[rbk]

Depending on original quality and previous care it could very well be a serviceable spare onboard or for sale. Get a lift to take a look and give you their thoughts if you're unsure. Seen plenty of boats with original sails 30+ years old day sailing around.

[JPA Cate]

There's an outfit that uses them for sails for islanders, the last time this question came up, someone posted a link to it, maybe it's time again? Sorry, I don't recall any more than that.

Our last old mainsail was sold for use as a delivery main for a race boat.

Ann

[Stumble]

There is a non-profit called Sails For Sustinance that takes donated old sails and brings them to the Carribean islands to use as everything from tents and sunshades to substinance level fisherman to use for sails. I highly recommend them and have donated a number of sails to them in the past.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Besides what's already been mentioned, you can use them to make boom tents (awnings), luggage/duffle bags, or most other things onboard which don't require a super UV resistant cloth. Which, if you're going to use the cloth to make something else, make sure that it still has enough life left in it to warrant building said item. As for example if you spend 100hrs building a boom tent, & it's shot in a year from UV & wind, odds are you won't be happy about such.

Though sometimes old cloth can be given new life when configured into such projects via adding coatings, to even include painting it, once the stitching' done. So long as the awning won't be used to gather potable water.

However if the cloth's in good shape then the sail can likely be revived. Especially if it's cross cut, & a nip & tuck by the sailmaker would give it a bunch of new life. Nip & tuck meaning reseaming it, & or a minor re-cut to give it good shape again. Albeit it would probably also benefit from a lot of hand work in such a case. Including giving some TLC to all the corner & attachment hardware, batten pockets, leech line, leech line cleat & pocket, reef points, etc.

[toddster8]

I have in mind: Lee cloths, sheet bags, a dinghy sail, maybe a riding sail, wind scoop, perhaps an awning.

I was recently disabused of the notion of cutting storm sails out of the old sails. The word is that the storm sails need to be made from heavier material.

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Stumble

There is a non-profit called Sails For Sustinance that takes donated old sails and brings them to the Carribean islands to use as everything from tents and sunshades to substinance level fisherman to use for sails. I highly recommend them and have donated a number of sails to them in the past.

Thank you, Greg, that's the one.

Ann

[psk125]

We use old sails for raking leaves. Even full, they slide well over the grass to the mulch heap. Problem is that they hold up pretty well, so we have a multi-year supply of leaf tarps.

[John_Trusty]

SeaBags (a for-profit company) will pay to have it shipped to their Maine factory and used as raw material for their products. In return, you get one of their bags, which are quite nice. No relation - only did this last season in response to the same question and liked the bag I got. https://seabags.com/

[Aaarrgh]

I am friends with a missionary to Haiti. He uses discarded sails to fit to fishing vessels. If interested in donating your sails for this mission, Please respond, or PM me.

Aarrrgh!

[Mithril Bham]

I have a perfectly good genoa that I left stored in my dock box (big mistake). Someone put a container of oil in my dock box which leaked & stained the sail horribly. Thinking of having it dyed. Any suggestions? Sorry for the tangent.

[Teknishn]

OK, so you found the original main. Have you run it up the pole to see how bad it actually is? As previously mentioned, might make a good backup sail (unless you already have one).

I have two very tired sails on the boat which I recently purchased. The main looks like a fish bowl but it will remain as a backup. I've purchased a storm jib for the boat so the old 110% jib gets cut up for curtains for the boat (prolly dyed some obnoxious color like "wrinkled neck trout brown" or "duck butt teal" or something as I have no taste in interior decor ). The remainder will be re-purposed as a sail sewing experiment and become either a riding sail or a sun awning for sunny days sitting in the cockpit.

[Tessellate]

In my area old sails seem to be donated for repurposing into bags mainly. Sails are usually replaced because they're bagged out and the stitching is fraying or UV damaged - there's very little demand from sailors for sails like that. But if you replace your sails early (before they're totally bagged out and falling apart), it does seem a shame to make into bags, and maybe a similar sized boat would take it.

I considered storing my old genoa, but sails are very large, bulky and difficult to store. I'm already storing one storm sail and a spinnaker. It's hard to imagine where people would store that many sails on boats under 40 feet.

[jmschmidt]

Aside from what others have said about recycling for one's own use and the donation service for the Caribbean, there used to be one for the Pacific islanders as well. I've donated old sails to them in the past. Don't know if they are still around but worth checking into.