Furling sails

[Chariots of Fire]

I'm in the process of building Bluenose II from a Billings kit.  The sail material they included is very stiff and would be impossible to create furled sails with.  Anyone got any suggestions on what kind of substitute material might be best?

[Roger Pellett]

Use silkspan, not silk but a light paper like covering used by model airplane builders.  For furled sails on my recently completed longboat I taped it to an open frame like a picture frame.  I then sprayed it with thinned acrylic paint before cutting out my sails.

 

Roger

[allanyed]

CofF

Finding sails that are of scale thickness in woven cloth is difficult.  Silkspan is a great substitute in general but high thread count bed sheets or pillow cases (800 or more TPI) look good and if they are to be furled, you can cut them short so they are not too bulky when furled.    

Allan

Edited November 14, 2019 by allanyed

[wefalck]

Do a bit of searching on the Forum, the various techniques and options for materials have been discussed before here.

 

Just to make it clear, there is/used to be finely woven silk (silkspan in the USA, but this may be product name) and silk-paper for covering model aircraft wings and other parts. Both materials can make useful sails and have their pros and cons. It depends inter alia on the scale one is working in. A substitute for 'silkspan' may be also the fabric that is used for screen-printing, but I have no practical experience with it. It seems to be easier to get than 'silkspan' these days.

[Roger Pellett]

Wefalck,

 

Here in the USA the silk-paper used to cover model aircraft surfaces is called Silkspan.  I was able to buy a large sheet at a local hobby shop for $3 US.

 

Roger

[Chariots of Fire]

Thanks, Guys.  I will try the silk span and see how it goes.  Saw the video above and it helped out a lot.