Ernest Ratsey, one of the great
names of sailmaking, described the materials from which sails were made in the
1930s in an article in The Rudder
magazine.
“There are two kinds of canvas
basically,” he explained, “a Southern-grown American cotton which is white and
an Egyptian-grown cotton which is called brown Egyptian because of its reddish
tint. The difference is really very marked.
“This brown Egyptian is getting
lighter in color every year and the only feasible explanation I have heard for
this change is that in the olden days the River Nile overflowed its banks when
it had too much water in it and irrigated the fields, sending with the water a
lot of silt, which in itself is a reddish-brown color.
“Now, since the Assouan Dam has been
built, nature no longer floods the fields but it is done by man instead and
scarcely any silt goes with the water as most of it has settled to the bottom.
“Don’t confuse brown Egyptian with
tanned canvas. This is a dye which I believe comes from India. This tanned
canvas is used quite a good deal by the fishing boats and trawlers working off
the Brittany coast and in the North Sea. This dye is supposed to preserve the
canvas and, of course, it doesn’t show the dirt or the mildew.
“In the old days flax was used a
great deal for canvas. It is of a very soft nature and even when wet it remains
that way but, of course. sails made from flax do not hold their shape owing to
its softness, that is why it has been superseded by cotton. Egyptian cotton has
a longer staple than Southern-grown American cotton and it makes a stronger
sail which seems to hold its shape better.
“You hear a lot about ordering sails
in the winter time and you probably think that this is a lot of sales talk. In
a way I suppose it is, but the real reason is that during the winter months
when the steam heat is on and the loft is kept at an even temperature, the
canvas as it goes through the various stages of manufacturing into a sail does
not vary very much and in the end should turn out to be a smoother sail;
whereas in the summer you may start a sail on a nice sunny day, have it blowing
northeast with rain on the second day and get a dry nor’wester the third.
“This is really most disconcerting
to the sailmaker because the canvas reacts very differently on each of these
days, so you can see that it is much simpler and should be a safer proposition
making sails during the wintertime.”
Today’s
Thought
Oh,
what a blamed uncertain thing
This
pesky weather is!
It
blew and snew and then it thew
And
now, by jing, it’s friz!
— Philander Johnson, Shooting Stars
Tailpiece
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are
(Up above the footlights’ sheen);
Forty-nine or seventeen?
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday,
Friday for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
2 comments:
It's interesting to think, John, how we've come full circle in some ways.
Consider how much care and maintenance a modern, cutting edge racing sail needs, and how frequently it must be replaced. Mylar-laminated carbon sailcloth is, in at least this one way, not much different from the cotton or hemp of an old square-rigger.
Good point, Matt, and the modern racing sailcloth is probably proportionately much more expensive.
John V.
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