new to the foiling game, making progress happy to say
my second hand wing is a bit saggy,
anyone had a wing canopy nip & tuck??
would have thought a competent sail maker could do.........
See the Redin Superwing X thread, I think some people replaced their panels. Sounds pretty advanced to me, but if you have access to the person with the right skill and equipment it may be cost effective.
That's a great idea. Maybe try using a bunch of those heavy duty plastic paper clips to mock up the nip and fly it on shore in light winds to see if it messes up the flight.
I've flown prototype kites with zippered darts in the canopy to change canopy tension for testing purposes.
I think sewing darts will work for tightening a worn out canopy. It can't be worse, if it's blow out now.
You could fold some darts then tape them down with spinnaker tape. Easy enough to do, fairly cheap and easy to remove. Packing tape would work if you want to be cheap.
Maybe inflate the wing, pull the excess at the trailing edge, get an idea of the size of the darts you want to put in. Mark them with a pencil. Deflate, fold, tape, inflate, see how it looks. Try it out.
If after all that it still seems like a good idea then cut out the darts to remove the folds and re-tape with spinnaker tape. Sew with polyester thread and away you go.
In case you're wondering how to properly do a dart.
Get your wing out flat, clean with acetone where cutting (careful of your stickers) you're going to cut a straight line, ideally next to or on the seam. If you can. Unpick a seam. then just lay the cloth over one side. Sew that sucker until the leach, then you're going to need to cut a triangle to ensure you have adequate leach tension. Here you might just patch with tape/cloth you cut. (Look at the leach of a CWC or strike, look at the little patch on the leach near corners.
done!
all in this should be 20 - 30 minutes
I actually did some work to a prototype wing for a WA based company this week.
The designer and tester worked out what percentage they wanted taken out of the canopy and made 3 slits on each side of the wing (not all the way to the leading edge) they used seam tape to hild the new seams together overlapping more as it went towards the trailing edge.
They tell me it took hours to work out and prepare whereas my job of sewing it up was fairly straightforward.
More than happy to do the same for you if the prep work is done but I'm not keen on cutting into the wing myself. I
Ry
The Sail Doctor
I actually did some work to a prototype wing for a WA based company this week.
The designer and tester worked out what percentage they wanted taken out of the canopy and made 3 slits on each side of the wing (not all the way to the leading edge) they used seam tape to hold the new seams together overlapping more as it went towards the trailing edge.
They tell me it took hours to work out and prepare whereas my job of sewing it up was fairly straightforward.
More than happy to do the same for you if the prep work is done but I'm not keen on cutting into the wing myself.
Ry
The Sail Doctor