Mending a sail

Repairing a seam on a Dacron sail can be very hard to stitch.  Dacron is both stiff and slippery and a bit hard to stitch.   Double stick tape is the best way to keep the Dacron in place so it can be stitched either by hand or with a machine.   For areas that need to be reinforced you can double stick tape a patch of Dacron to the area then it can be stitched down.  Grommets can easily be put in and if the grommet is going to have a lot of stress on the grommet edges can be stitched to re enforce them.

Doing a small sail fix is not hard. Use a good nylon thread and have a fun. 

Old Sail / Recycled

What do you do with and old sail?

An old sail that has seen its better day and is blown out of shape so it no longer is good to use as a sail still has some uses. There is a lot of yardage of Dacron. A Dacron sail cloth is tough stuff.

You can make utility bags form the old sails, or make covers for winches, compasses and grills that need a cover. I have thought about making a dinghy cover from an old sail.

Some sails are not waterproof and others are. The ones that are not can be made waterproof with scotch guard if the cover needs to be waterproof.

Stitching old Dacron sails can be tough. If you tape the seam with double stick tape, the cloth is much easier to work with. The sail cloth can be cut with a hot knife and the hot knife leaves a nice edge to the cloth.

Old sails can also make a unique shade tent.

I do not like to throw out stuff if I can recycle it into something. Recycled sail stuff looks Nautical, is useful, and the price is right.