Sails

[Ed Meyer]

How do you get sails to appear the wind is blowing. (Bellowing)

[mtaylor]

Cloth, paper or plastic?  If cloth, use starch and a mold such as on tin can cut open and shaped for the sail.

[Don Jane]

Another way to make wind filled sails is when you get the sails mounted on the arms and on the masts - take an electriv fan and blow it on the sails to make them billow out, and then spray a mixture of white glue and water on the sails while the fan is blowing, when the glue mixteur drys, it will leave the sails billowed out. Another way is to insert bendable wire in the edges of the sails when you sew them together - when they are mounted on the ship, you can bend the wire ti make the sails look billowed - Good Luck !!!!

[Srodbro]

I have made sails of tissue paper (the kind used in gift wrapping, not the stuff you wipe your nose with) attached to a bolt rope running the perimeter of the sail, made of fine (28ga) brass wire. The ends of the wire are doubled about a half inch and soldered together. On gaff-rigged fore-and-aft sales, and on square sails, I'll run another wire at one or two reef points, and on large square sails I might add bunt lines, all soldered together. Then I cut the sail paper material about 1/8th inch larger than this brass skeleton, saturate the sail at the brass wire with dilute white glue, and fold over. At the reef lines, I cut a separate strip of sail material and glue in a similar manner over the wire onto the sail. Then, lash to the yards, or attach to the stays, and complete the running rigging. The brass can be bent for the desired effect. Produces an effect that's acceptable to me. 

The construction is easily seen in the backlit pic below. 

Lit from another angle, it looks ok, too.  I'll also use brass wire for the sheets of head sails to hold them out as if pushed by the wind. 

 

 

[Jim Rogers]

Very,very nice. Love the look. Don't you worry about the tissue getting torn?

[Srodbro]

No worry:  She lives in a glass case, so is protected from the admiral and grandchild. 

My only concern is how she'll age, if the sails will get brittle and crack on there own. 

 

[JerseyCity Frankie]

To keep the fabric in one position I have found it necessary to use one chemical or another to stiffen the fabric in the shape you want. Over the years I tried white glue and I tried laundry starch but neither of those held the material rigid. Then I found a product at a craft store called Stiifen Stuff and this I used on my sails on my cutter Le Renard model. Later I found an even better product made by Golden paint company, a water based acrylic product that worked great and I used that on my HMS Victory model- check out that build log it's ALL ABOUT sail manufacturing and little else. FINALY On my last effort, my Yawl Dulcibella, I used two-part epoxy. And I describe that technique in my log too.