Cutting a Sunfish Sail to fit a Mini Fish II

Teenysailor

New Member
Hi all! I recently acquired a Mini Fish II Hull with rigging for a Sunfish. The sail needs to be repaired, so I thought I may as well cut it to the specs of the actual Mini Fish II sail. I'm an experienced seamstress, so I plan to do the work myself.

Does anyone know where I can find the detailed specs for the original Mini Fish II sail? There seems to be lots of info available for the Sunfish, but less so for the Mini Fish.
 
Proper thread may be an issue. :oops:Sail repair is mostly done with costly industrial sewing machines.

When I "successfully" used The Admiral's home sewing machine, I used regular cotton thread. All went well, but dacron thread may not feed properly without unaccustomed adjustment. Cotton thread, IMHO, won't outlast the sail. Silk thread is "out". :eek:

In your repair, if you use adhesive sail repair tape, and will be sewing through it, dab WD-40 in front of the stitching's pathway, and into the bobbin.

Take care--and remember:
"You will reap what you sew".

:rolleyes:
 
A Minifish II sail is a cat rig and a Sunfish is lateen, so I don’t thing you can make a very good Minifish II sail starting out with a sunfish sail.

You might want to try finding an old Laser sail to use as a starting point. It already has the requisite mast sleeve. Minifish II look cool but they were very rare so making a sail is likely your only option.
 
I sew sails a lot and there's no magic to the sewing aspect of it if you already can sew. Small sails can easily be done on "home" machines, where a zig zag stitch is generally preferred for strength...especially a 3 or 4 point (which will be on the industrials). However a pair of straight stitch rows is just fine too. UV resistant thread is best, but it's not like the sail is left out 24/7. Look at Sailrite for sail cloth, rhread, and even kits. The "magic" is creating the belly or draft of the sail with no "hard" or flat spots. This is where good patterns come in.
 

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