This is a photograph of one of my Thunder Tiger Victoria RC sailboats, much modified from the kit configuration. It is equipped with Sirius paneled sails.
The sails that come with the Victoria kit are made from a single sheet of fabric with no paneling or built in camber. They are entirely suitable for use on the boat, but like golf clubs, we all want ‘something better’ when we compete with others in races whether they make a difference or not. That’s where paneled sails with built-in camber bought from a reputable sailmaker come into play.
Let’s start, however, with how to mount the sails to the rig. Starting with the jib sail you will notice that it has three grommets, one at the head, one at the clew and one at the tack. It also has a jib stay, usually laced through a pocket in the luff edge of the sail. The lower end of the jib stay is fastened securely at the bow/tack end of the jib boom. A loop of line is loosely fastened through the tack grommet and around the boom. This loop controls the gap between the jib boom and foot of the jib sail.
The upper end of the jib stay is fastened to an adjustable Cunningham that runs upward through the jib stay/halyard eyelet to the top of the mast where it loops through an eyelet. The jib halyard is a Cunningham adjuster that is fastened to the jib head grommet, through the jib stay/halyard eyelet, and looped through the eyelet at the top of the mast. These Cunninghams allow the tension in the jib stay and the jib halyard to be adjusted.
At the bottom of the jib, a small loop of line is fastened through the jib clew grommet and around the jib boom. This loop restrains the sail from rising up, controlling its distance from the boom. A Cunningham loop is run through the clew grommet and through the eyelet in the clew end of the jib boom and secured to the jib sheet fastening. Adjustment of this Cunningham will change the camber at the foot of the sail.
An additional line with a Cunningham is looped through the jib boom clew end eyelet and run up to the jib stay/halyard eyelet where it is fastened. Adjusting the tension of this topping lift line will change the twist of the jib sail.
Depending on wind conditions, the jib stay tension should be taut. The halyard tension should be loose enough to allow the jib luff to slide up and down on the jib stay by about 3 to 6 mm. The topping lift is tightened to increase the jib twist as the wind increases and loosened to reduce it as the wind weakens.
Mounting the main sail is similar to mounting the jib sail. The head grommet of the main sail is attached to the crane at the top of the mast with a Cunningham. The foot of the sail is attached to with a loop of line through the tack grommet to the gooseneck. Short loops of line are run through the grommets on the luff of the sail and around the mast. These luff ties should be fastened loosely to the mast with about 6 mm of slack.
The clew grommet of the sail has a loop of line passed through it and around the boom to control the height of the foot of the sail above the boom. The clew grommet has a Cunningham passed through it, down through a boom end eyelet and fastened to the main boom sheet attachment. This Cunningham adjusts the camber of the main sail.
The twist of the main sail can be changed with the tension of the backstay or by adjusting the vang. Like the jib, more twist is indicated by stronger winds and less twist by weaker winds.
Having mounted the sails onto the rig, it’s now time to mount the rig onto the boat. I usually start by placing the bottom of the mast into the mast step. I then attach the jib to the jib swivel mount on the foredeck. I then attach and tension the backstay.
Keeping the mast stable as the shrouds are attached can be a challenge. Using fishing line as temporary shrouds can help stabilize the mast. The shrouds are fitted from the shroud eyelets on the mast to the chain plates. I mount the lower shrouds to the front of the chain plate and the upper shrouds to the rear of the chain plate. Once the shrouds are attached you should carefully adjust them to square up the mast left and right and adjust the shrouds, jib stay tension and backstay tension to adjust the tilt of the mast fore and aft. I recommend starting with the mast vertical fore and aft. Typically, the mast is bent backward for stronger winds, although I don’t use the shrouds for this, just the backstay tension.
Adjusting The Sails
Adjusting the sails, or tuning, begins with base settings that are tested out on the water in the company of other boats. Keeping a notebook of the tuning values is an excellent idea. In this way you can catalog the tuning values after each outing, noting the performance of the boat whether poor or good and what the wind conditions were. In this way, when you arrive at the pond or wherever you sail, you will have a good notion of what values you need to tune the boat with to begin with. They can always be tweaked later if conditions change.
Other values to keep track of are the lengths of the backstay and jib stay. The backstay is best measured from the backstay hook on the counter to the backstay attachment on the crane. The jib stay can be measured from the jib attachment position to the bow. It’s easier to adjust the mast rake using these measurements than trying to measure its rake angle.
Making Sails
There are lots of sailmakers who supply sails for a wide range of sailboat classes. However, sometimes folks get the urge to make their own sails. Flat sails, like those used by DF65 and DF95 sailboats are relatively simple to make. Paneled sails with built-in camber are more challenging.
As an introduction to sailmaking I’m going to describe how to make a suit of A+ sails for a DF65. All the other DF65 and DF95 sails will be made in the same way as these DF65 A+ sails.
Before setting out to make the sails it is very important to carefully read the rules for the sailboat class, particularly those that pertain to the sails. The DF65 class rules detail what materials can be used to make sails and give detailed dimensions for the sail patterns, batten sizes, reinforcements, number and national marking sizes and placement, class emblem, flow stripes, and telltales among other considerations.
Having read and understood the class rules for the sails you intend to make, the first step is to select and procure the sail cloth you will use. For the DF65 A+ sails, 50 µm or 35 µm Mylar is a preferred choice. You will need ¼” double sided tape for the jib sail luff pocket fabrication. You will also need to source material for the reinforcements of the corner grommets. I prefer to use kite repair tape, spinnaker repair tape, or insignia fabric. All of these are self-adhesive and come in a variety of colors. You will also need grommets, typically 1/8” or 3 mm, and a grommet crimp tool. In addition, you will need leader wire and crimps, or stout fishing line for the jib stay. A fine tip Sharpie is the ideal marker to outline the sail pattern, and you will need either a sharp X-ACTO knife or a sharp pair of scissors.
The next step is to mark out the sail dimensions on suitable pattern paper. Place the sail cloth on top of the sail pattern and mark its outline. Be generous in this marking. The sails can be trimmed to their proper size after they are near completion, but it’s not possible to add material if they are trimmed too small. Be sure to add at least ½” or 12mm extra on the luff for the luff pocket.
For the jib sail the first task after cutting out its pattern is to make the luff pocket. Mark a line with a pencil ½” back from the luff edge of the sail and overlap the material along the edge. Trace the edge of the folded over material with a pencil. Unfold the seam and lay a length of double-sided tape along the line. Carefully fold over the seam as you simultaneously peel the paper off the double-sided tape, forming a pocket along the luff edge of the sail. You can now feed the leader wire through pocket to form the jib stay, and loop and crimp each end of the wire.
It’s now time to fasten the reinforcements to the corners of the sails on both sides and to the areas of the luff ties on the main sail. Once the reinforcements have been applied you may mark and punch out the holes for the grommets. Punch the grommets into place and the sails are nearly finished. Place the sails back on top of the pattern and trim any excess material.
Using a wide Sharpie marker you can mark the flow stripes. Add the sail numbers if appropriate using a template and a Sharpie or vinyl self-adhesive numbers. I use clear plastic donut boxes from the grocery store to cut out strips for my battens. These I attach to the sail using double-sided tape, covering them in spinnaker tape cut to suit.
Paneled Sails
Paneled sails are made in sections that are taped or sewn together. These section panels are joined in a manner that inserts camber into the sail. While the dragon classes forbid the use of paneled sails, the Victoria class rules do allow them, as do a number of other classes.
As discussed above, careful reading of the class rules, particularly those pertaining to the sails, is very important before beginning. For paneled sails, when marking out the sail pattern it’s important to mark out an allowance for the extra material used at each panel seam.
There are two basic methods of making sails with added camber: the Turtle Method and the Claudia Gadget method. I used the Claudia Gadget method to make my paneled sails. The Claudio gadget method requires you to calculate the number of shims to use to achieve the required camber. You will find an excel spreadsheet in my library for download that does this for you. This video provides a tutorial on how to make the sails as does this video and this video.
Before proceeding you will have to decide how much camber to insert into each seam. Values typically range between 8% to 12%. More camber works best in light winds. The Sirius sails on my Victoria #49 have 8% camber built into them are good in most wind conditions up to 12 mph. Since we cannot reef model boat sails, when the winds get above 12 mph, I change to smaller flat B-sails on my Victoria that involves changing the rig, smaller sails and rigs for even stronger winds are allowed, but for me when the wind gets too strong for B-sails, I quit and leave the pond for another day.
Once the sails are made, they have reinforcements attached together with battens, flow stripes, numbers, and insignia. They are then laid out on the pattern and trimmed to fit the required class size.