You think you're soooooo good.

Kenutu has a beautiful 150% genoa that we flew the first time we met her. When it whipped out, it was like a giant wind blanket, clean and full of opportunity. We've been sailing with the genoa quite a bit, but we don't always unroll the sail all the way since it's sometimes too much for the wind we've got. Well, we finally found the jib, and since some of the UV fabric that covers the genoa had started to flap we swapped the sails.

I brought the genoa into the garage and started to seam rip out the sunwrecked thread and prep the fabric to be patched. About 75% of the way done, I got ADHD and decided to start sewing some of the pieces back down. I have a heavy-duty Singer sewing machine. I have sewn a boat full of cushions, including some that are vinyl. I am a professional seamstress. Obviously.

Well, this is how far I got. ​

I'm pretty sure my sewing machine laughed at me during the first stitch attempt. It couldn't even muster enough strength to go thru the sail. I tried manhandling it thru hoping that once it got going it would have some confidence. Yeah, the needle broke. Clearly I was out of my league and should stick to cushions.

I bagged up the sail, apologized to Mack for ruining it by my overzealous seam ripping, and hauled it in to a shop I had talked to about a bimini cover. They sent me around the corner to Quantum Sails, where I met Olga. At this point, I'd just like to say thank god we live in a boat mecca so that these repair places are around the corner.

Olga took a look at my sail and noticed that the luff tape (aka the fabric tube that threads the sail onto the boat) had started to fray. It wasn't totally in shambles, but she said that when it starts to go, it'll rip off like a zipper unzipping and who knows where your sail will end up. 

Olga knows just what to say to make you nervous. I saw what good luff tape looks like and realized the sorry state of ours. And the decision was made. The Sunbrella fabric was going to be patched and we were getting new luff tape. 

A couple weeks later, the sail was done. The $775 repair did not feel good, but it felt better than the $2000 that a new genoa would cost if ours decided to rip apart and fly away. Now we just gotta get the UV fabric applied to the jib and maybe we'll finally be sail ready.