Submitted on Decmeber 29, 2003 by Steve Borsse

Question: Hello, I have a 1984 Morgan 43, that I recently purchased. This boat did not come with a genoa or headsail of any type. A friend gave me his 150 genoa from his Morgan 43, however his is a 1987 model with the "tall" mast. The sail seems to be in excellent condition. Can this sail be cut down to fit my boat? And if so, what would be the cost? Thank you very much.

Happy New Year,
Steve Borsse

Answer: Hi Steve, The sail can be effectively cut down to fit your boat. The cost will vary depending on where you have the work done and the procedure the sailmaker uses to cut the sail down. The best recut method in terms of the final result will be to have the sailmaker follow these steps:

1) Strip the luff tape or rope and hanks off the sail from the tack to the mid luff.

2) Cut the sail in half from luff to leech along the top of a horizontal seam

3) Make a second cut on the lower half of the sail, exactly parralel to the
first cut, removing enough luff length to make the sail fit your headstay with an allowance for a 2" seam.

4) Cut the lower section of the sail vertically from the center of the cut
edge to approximately the middle of the foot, with the cut line exactly perpendicular to the horizontally cut top edge.

5) Now you have three parts- a head section, tack section and clew section.
Make a second vertical cut exactly parrallel to the first vertical cut, removing enough material to make the top edge of the tack-clew section the same length as the bottom edge of the head section with an allowance for a 1.5" seam.

6) Glue and sew the tack to the clew and then the head to the tack-clew.

7) Refair and finish the foot curve.

8) Reinstall the luff tape on the lower half of the luff. Splice the leech
tape.

Many sail lofts will be reluctant to cut the sail in half, prefering instead to move the head point down the leech and recut the entire luff. However, the method outlined above typically requires less time, no new materials and results in the same shape as the original sail.

Regards,
Dan Neri

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