Sunfish Sail Repair Adhesive Backed Sailcloth

22 Jun 20:

We have a 1980s vintage Sunfish sail from the Fogh North Sails loft in Canada, Fogh designed the first race sails for the Sunfish and this sail has some of those features. It came with our wooden Sunfish ZIP but had several tears. We repaired the tears with adhesive backed sailcloth from SailRite, and decided to have fun with the patches. We cut the different size patches to go about an inch past the widest part of the tear, and patched both sides, reverse image on one side. Stitching for these type repairs is neither required nor recommended. We went with white for tone on tone colors, but SailRite also sells different color adhesive backed insignia sail cloth that would have been fun, different color Sunfishees.

FMI:
Adhesive Backed Insignia Sailcloth
New Sunfish Sails - Laser Performance

Sunfish Sailboat Cover Repair

13 Apr 19:

A squirrel chewed a hole in one of our Sunfish covers, we repaired it with 2 pieces of adhesive backed Challenge sailcloth from Sailrite. When we have time we'll throw a zig zag switch around the edge.

Some of these covers are over 5 years old, they are holding up well. We purchased them from SLO Sail and Canvas, the ones we like the best are Pacific Blue Sunbrella with adjustable straps. We like the Spars-On-Deck option, but with our squirrel issue we will go back to storing the sail, boom and gaff inside the garage. That will be better for the sails long term as well, they can get a little damp when the covers get soaked. There is a treatment we can spray on the cover to renew water repellency, right now we are okay with them being able to breathe and let any dampness dry over a few days. Be certain you order the material that is right for you. Sunbrella breathes great, but is can wear quickly during trailer rides. We are not fans of the "waterproof" fabric options, the water gets trapped inside as well and mildew can form quickly. SLO has a page with information on different cover materials, give them a call for more info.

Rinsed them off a few days ago with the pressure washer.