Mainsail cover and cockpit cover

Hello all,

I have been having fun with my little Singer 319K. It seems like a great machine and we have been making covers out of cheap Bunnings tarps for my Laser and the kayaks. I can now dream of getting into the big time.

The large cat needs a mainsail cover. The main is being covered by a tarp which is not good looking. I would much rather make my own cover as the wishbone means I need a few special features on the cover. Also I would like to buy fabric for a cockpit cover - the sun is getting to me and I would like to sail withoutu getting fried. The cockpit cover will be on stainless frames and be about 2x3.3m in dimension.

Does anyone have any advice as to Sunbrella vs Weathermax or Sattler? I am not in the know on the various merits although I did hear that Weathermax's extra waterproofness may be an issue with a boom cover - causing mildew perhaps. Although extra waterproofness would be a good thing on the flattish cockpit cover. Any good retailers for small amounts? (less than 10 metres of 200cm wide). I will also need to buy some good thread for the Singer. Choices and retailers please.

cheers

Phil

Thanks Ramona.

Can you give some more details on the bag - I like the idea of clips rather thana zip. In the end zips always fail on me. How does the aft 2/3rds close? Where did you get your weathermax from? Is the lifetime thread the UV treated type? Where did you get that?

I have problems with swallows getting into the main sail bag. It only takes a day. I zip the sail bag right up. I have thought about adding a shade cloth or mesh section to allow the sailbag to breathe . No way could I use clips around the mast with homely entrances for swallows.

I used plastic clips for the mizzen cover I made & they are starting to fail, I think I will replace them with stainless rings in the fashion of a motorcycle helmet chin strap

Hi Kankama,

I also have the 319K and have used it to make a sail bag.

I made this as a trial to make sure I could do it and get the dimensions correct. For this trial I just used cheap 'waterproof upholstery polyester' from Ebay. It cost $79 for 5m and has actually lasted better than expected - still looking OK after 2 years (maybe just a bit faded).

It's much higher at the mast end then ideal, but the cutout to get my sail slugs into the track is quite up above the boom, so I can't get the sail all the way down onto the boom. It's on my to-do list to make some kind of mast gate to allow the sail to furl lower, then I'll make a shorter bag. The flap around the front of the mast is closed with a zip but is a pain in the ass so I'll replace that with clips and webbing.

The 319k is a good little machine that get through an adequate amount of fabric, but struggles to feed anything too thick. This is where a walking presser foot would come in handy. If you are not too precious about stitch neatness it is possible to drag the material through by hand when it gets hung up. Be careful what thread size you use. I found that Sailrite Tex 90 (V92) Polyester was just a bit too thick for the machine. It threaded on OK and seemed to work alright, but caused massive jams. I use Schmetz 206x13 size 14 needles. There was some modification I had to do to the bobbin case to enable this. Let me see if I can dig up the reference.

I love posts like this.

gary

I was watching the Sailrite video on how to make a stackpack. They spend a bit of time making a flap that sits over the zipper to protect it from the UV. Looks very good too.