Homemade windsurf sail

Dear Windsurfers,
I have been surfing since 1988 and I am a windsurf instructor. Two years ago I decided to make my own windsurf sail. I watched many custom sails and factory made sails on youtube. For my project my uncle gave me a 55 years old professional sewing machine.(not zig zag-plain sewing ) Than I designed my room for sail making. My room area is only 15 square meters. I bought many large wood planks for sewing table. For sail material I used icy monofilm (not transparent ) and dacron fabric which are %100 polyester. Icy monofilm thickness is 150 micron and weight is 210gr/m2. Dacron thickness is 200 micron and weight is 220gr/m2. I produced 3 sails. My first sail is 4.8 m2 my second sail is 4.0 m2 and my third sail is 5.5 m2. I tested all my sails in heavy wind. (25 knots to 34 knots). Results are unbelievable. No demage all the stitchs are sturdy. Easy gybing easy water start and easy to roll the sail. It cost me 125-135 US dollars. (each sail). However I spent 40 days to make each sail. Because my workshop is to small and too much stitch. If you are interested in producing homemade sail I am ready to give you all the details.
By the way my first board is Fanatic Falcon 110lt and my second board is F2 Ride 103 lt.











Melih Sengil Ankara TURKEY

i'll take an 8.0 m² please

the sticky outty battens seem "odd"

Congratulations, great work in challenging conditions.

Is it your design or did you copy the shapes from existing sails?

Nice one! Looks great!

Very impressive. I wouldn't even come close to knowing where to start. Only one thing I'm curious about is does it bother you not having a clear window panel in the sails?

Select to expand quote

John340 said..
Cool!

Thanks..

Select to expand quote

KAOS69 said..
looks great well gone

Thanks..

Select to expand quote

Mastbender said..
Sean Ordonez (awesome board shaper on Maui) has been making his own for awhile now, but not for commercial that I know of, just personal use.

Nice sail nice board.

Select to expand quote

Ben Severne said..
Nice one! Looks great!

Thanks.. Severne sails are very popular in Turkey. Most of the windsurf racers are using Severne Sails. Perfect quality sails.
I wish you good work.

Select to expand quote

musorianin said..
Very impressive. I wouldn't even come close to knowing where to start. Only one thing I'm curious about is does it bother you not having a clear window panel in the sails?

Thanks..
This Icy monofilm is very interesting material. % 100 polyester. If you clean it with detergent it becomes clear monofilm. There is a very thin white layer on the monofilm. I don't touch this layer because it blocks the UV. Sail's lifetime is getting longer.

Nice work.

You'll have to find a Zig zag sewing machine now :) that would save you some time.
One of my mate started the same thing a few years back by copying a Pryde Combat for his personal use (he was making them with lighter material) and is now testing his own design. He recently made a 3 battens that looks really good.

Unfortunately, that is a lot of work indeed although it must be rewarding sailing on his own sails.

Select to expand quote

musorianin said..
Very impressive. I wouldn't even come close to knowing where to start. Only one thing I'm curious about is does it bother you not having a clear window panel in the sails?

Good observation! I have enough difficulties seeing through mono-film window. I bet it will be hard to see through such opaque panels.

A friend of mine put his head through the window of his brand new sail. So he took it to the local sail making joint. A job was very well done, except for the fact that the sail maker replaced the clear polyester film with sail cloth ! We suggested to our mate to hire a guide dog to help him out while sailing

Select to expand quote

Jupiter said..

musorianin said..
Very impressive. I wouldn't even come close to knowing where to start. Only one thing I'm curious about is does it bother you not having a clear window panel in the sails?

Good observation! I have enough difficulties seeing through mono-film window. I bet it will be hard to see through such opaque panels.

A friend of mine put his head through the window of his brand new sail. So he took it to the local sail making joint. A job was very well done, except for the fact that the sail maker replaced the clear polyester film with sail cloth ! We suggested to our mate to hire a guide dog to help him out while sailing

I agree with you. It is difficult to find original material in Turkey. For an example ( x ply and reinforced monofilm or clear monofilm). This is the best material for me. I don't mind because when ever I want I can clean the opaque monofilm with soap. Then it becomes clear. When I surf I always control my frontage and my back side.