Making furled sails
Kerry O'Connor


I used off white polycotton for the sails, polycotton is a common material used for making pillow cases and sheets. Any material would work as long as it has a fine weave, this worked well for 1:48 scale.

I cut the sails initially to suit the sail plan, less any hems (this is the schooner Harvey 1847) as I did not want to sew anything.
 
The trick was to bond the sail edge to a rope without sewing.
 
 
I used ordinary white glue, thinned slightly to make it flow with a brush. Too thin and it will not bond.
 
 
I then placed pins under the wet edge to suspend it while drying.
 
 
With practice I found it best to pin out the rope and material together, working on soft cardboard made for easier pinning.
 
 
I was able to pin out the circumference of the sail in one go, and applied two coats of white glue in quick succession, as the first coat soaks in to the rope and material and all but disappears.

When this was completely dry, I turned over the sails and applied another coat. This extra coat has to be done carefully as it softens the earlier coats and one careless bump can undo the work. When dry it is surprisingly strong and can readily be folded.
 
The sails were soon done, though I was to find as I began furling them, except for the mainsail full size sails would end up too large and bulky,
 
 
This is the mainsail. I spaced out my hoop ropes on the left with dividers, then began folding the sail, with some light assistance from an iron. The holes along the bottom are for lashing to the boom, the holes are made by piercing with a sharp point. Don't push a pin between the rope and material as it will tend to break the rope away from the material, stay in the glue line about 1mm in from the rope, it is very strong there.
 
 
The sail was then lashed to the booms.
 
 
All lashed to the booms and tied up, do not worry if it is too neat you can mess up the folds latter.
 
 
I used the full size sails on the mainsails but on the other sails 2/3rds of the sail was plenty, even a 1/2 size would do the jibs, otherwise the furled sail would have turned out too bulky.
 
 
First mark out the holes where the fixings will go, the distance the holes are apart will determine the size of the folds.
 
 
These are the jibs. A gentle iron helps when folding as it all tries to spring apart. The sail at the rear was a full size, but halfway through folding it became obvious that 1/2 had to be cut off.
 
 
Square sails were easy to do. Bottom half of sail has been cut off to reduce bulk. As thin as the material may seem, it is way too thick for the scale, plus my spars seemed too thin which did not help.
 
 
Lash to spar first, then begin folding from outside in towards centre. The centre of a square sail should be the bulkiest part when furled. At this stage I found a skewer or thin piece of wood placed in the bottom fold was handy to help roll up the sail tightly. Lash it to the spar working along as you pull out the skewer.
 
 
Square sails. I had kept some of the jib points that I cut off earlier when reducing the sail size, to poke in between the sail and spar to act as dummy dog ears for the rigging. Here are some pictures of the furled sails mounted on the ship. Amendment: The dog ears should come from the top of the furled sail, not below as shown. Thank you to Lucas for this correction.
 
 
Jibs and flying jibs. If your furled rolls look too neat, creases and bagginess can be worked in latter with the tweezers.
 
 
Main topsail furled, still to be lashed to the mast.
 
 
Gaff topsail
 
 
Main sails.