Sail ID please

Caveman

New Member
Hello. I have had this dinghy sail for a while and cannot figure out what sailboat it goes to.

Made by Lincoln Foster in 1954
15' bolt rope luff
9' loose foot
17.5' leach with three battens

Very nice quality sale in excellent shape. I am planning on listing it for sale soon but would like to find out what it is first to see if there is a local club.

Thank You
Brian
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Interesting problem for the nautical Sherlock Holmes in all of us... the clues are there, but time has passed and the world has changed, LOL. :(

First clue: G-22 was the logo for a 22' fixed-keel sloop made by Glassline Marine in Minnesota, which was evidently sold (or also sold) as a kit boat. Sail seems kinda small for the mainsail of a 22' sailboat, and the loose foot would imply a smaller dinghy, but ya never know, maybe the rig was poorly designed, LOL. :confused:

Second clue: Lincoln H. Foster, who lived to at least 101 years of age, according to one website scanned in a flying search (and I mean FLYING, LOL). He sold his sail loft to another hand named Steve Mauritz (?), but the business went under or was voluntarily shut down in the early-to-mid-2000s, otherwise you could've contacted the new owner to ask about the sail, there might have been production records or something, aye? No dice. :rolleyes:

Third clue: The loose foot itself, more commonly found on smaller dinghies, catboats & sloops ranging from 12'-18' in length. Narrows things down a bit, but still covers a LOT of ground. :oops:

Fourth clue: Lincoln H. Foster's apparent liking for multiple classes of scows, sloops, racing dinghies, and even iceboats... yes, iceboats, as if things weren't complicated enough, LOL. ;)

Fifth clue: That 1433 below the date of manufacture on the sail itself... time of completion, or a number in a series? Wish some of the nautical hee-roes at this site would weigh in here, I've been to several sail lofts in the past but I can't quite recall any sailmaker putting the time of completion down on his finished work. :D

That's about as far as I got before I needed to grab another cold beer... but WTF, it's a start, LOL. It's also a sad reflection upon my social life... :eek:

GOOD LUCK TO YA, I'M CONFIDENT THAT YOU'LL IDENTIFY THIS SAIL IN DUE TIME... MOI, I'M READY FOR A BLIND DATE OFF CRAIGSLIST, LOL. :confused:

GAL WILL ACTUALLY BE BLIND... OR NOT A GAL AT ALL, BUT SOME TRANNY GRINDER OUTTA NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOL. :eek: :eek: :eek:

Edit: G-22 (or G22) also refers to the Glock 22, but as holster material or a cleaning patch, this one seems a bit large, LOL. :cool:
 
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Thank You Ghost Rider! That's about as far as I got as well, but the G-22 had a sail area of about 150 sf and the Glock 22... about 2000 fps ;)

Funny that you mention ice boats. My first sailboat was a Barnett Butterfly that apparently had a production run as an ice boat for quite a few years due to the harsh winters up in WI. This sail is somewhere close to 70sqf which is pretty close to a 12-15 foot dinghy. It came with a butterfly sailboat but is not for that one. Butterflies had the sleeved foot.

If you were responding to this on a Friday night, then I'd really be worried about your social life haha.

Hopefully I'll figure this out soon. I'd like to sell it and get it in the hands of someone that might have an old tattered sail for their "G-22" boat.
 
I was also thinking that they might have taken a G-22 sail and cut it down, but this one looks purpose built for something else. G-22 might have been someone's race numbers as well.
 
Cutting it down seems unlikely, with the sailmaker's logo where it is... unless the former owner took it BACK to Foster's loft for trimming. And whaddya make of that 1433? Seems like that's a solid clue, I just can't figure it out... maybe it was a slow day and the crew in the loft were all drinking beer, LOL. :confused:
 
Yes, I reckon so... but to what series? :confused:

I'm pondering this "Mystery of the Universe" as I pound another cold beer... maintenance alcoholic, don'tcha know??? :eek:

And destined for a bad end, but meh... the way this world is going, I've already seen enough of it, LOL. :cool:
 
G in ILYA world is Grand Rapids Lake in MI. The number is the number of membership of that ILYA fleet at that club. For example, Bob, is an ILYA member at Grand Rapids and he's the 22nd member to join. He would be G-22 on any ILYA scow (except the MC or M-20) boat he sails including (in the '50's) A, E, D, or C.
 
Makes sense. Where there any smaller scows racing back in the 50's? I can't find any info, and this sail is too small for any larger scow that was typically used for racing.

Thank You
 
Well, didja solve the mystery yet? It's Friday, and we're sorely in need of some entertainment, even if it is only "THE MYSTERY OF THE LINCOLN H. FOSTER SAIL NUMBER!!!" :eek:

WTF, man has opened the pyramids, climbed Everest & K2, and found the goldurned Titanic, shouldn't be too hard to figure out what this G-22 designates... I reckon the one hand is right, a Grand Rapids designator falls in line with all other clues. :confused:
 

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