Book Description

From the PREFACE. The Author of this work is sanguine that it will meet with a favourable reception, not only by the Sailmaker, but also by those who use sails, as no book has hitherto been published, to his knowledge, which deals with the subject of Sailmaking in a really scientific manner. He is convinced that no manufacture can be successfully carried on without fixed principles or methods to guide the workman. That art and science are required in Sailmaking is evident from the fact that a sail, after it has been in use for a time, should compare favourably in every detail with the plan and specification given to the maker, and have all the qualities of a flat and lifting sail. The Author uses the word " lifting " advisedly, as it is a most important and, indeed, essential feature in a fore and aft sail that it be a help in lifting the vessel out of the trough of the sea, and keep her free and lively upon the surface. He does not hesitate to add that, in his belief, many vessels, more especially fishing smacks, are lost, and numbers of lives sacrificed annually, in consequence of baggy sails, which during a gale hold the wind and press the vessels down, there being no freedom for the wind's exit out of the after-leech. If the publication of this treatise should only be the means of reducing this loss of life and property, the Author will consider himself amply repaid for the time and labour expended upon it. He has given years of careful observation and study to the work of sailmaking, and has been in the employment of the best sailmakers in the kingdom ; and he is thus enabled, he believes, to set before anyone who brings intelligence to his work principles by which can be produced flat and lifting sails of whatever description, second to the productions of no maker in the trade. He has not forgotten a remark made to him many years ago by the first foreman of the most famous yacht sailmaking firm in this country — perhaps in the world — as to the secret of that firm's success, which was to the effect that their success was owing to "attention given to apparent trifles." This treatise, he believes, will be found to practically demonstrate the truth of that assertion. The work is so arranged that the several operations of Sailmaking are treated consecutively, with distinctive heads, under each chapter; and the Author confidently believes that, while a careful perusal of its pages will be as a revelation to many, it will confer a lasting benefit upon a numerous class who have felt the want of a handbook of the kind in the prosecution of their calling.