Painted Sails

[Acornrunner]

So I have seen some wonderfully colorful sails out on the lake, ...

Has anyone tried painting a sail, or part of a sail?

What type of paint would you use?

[GreenLake]

I suspect that most colored sails you saw would likely have been spinnakers, although some sailmakers for small boats occasionally use more than one color cloth for the main. (And some boats come with the red color sails called tanbark, to mimic traditional sail colors).

You can order spinnakers in a wide variety of color combinations, and if you want an image, then sailmakers may be able to print one onto the sail for you. (I've not seen that for a DS or dinghy anywhere, but people sailing the big boats often get creative).

I'm content with a bright red spinnaker (a hand-me-down) as it somewhet matches the red color of the deck on my boat.

Is your boat rigged for a spinnaker?

[Acornrunner]

not rigged for a spinnaker, not sure I'm ready for the additional complexity.

[GreenLake]

Then you'll have to wait before you can "fly your colors"

Yes, it does add some complexity, but as I found out, once I had mine rigged, I sorted it out pretty quickly and was flying it single-handed even (in sufficiently light, but even winds) after the second or third time.

If you rig your uphaul/downhaul as single set with a portion that is bungee, you'll have a single line to control the pole's height. If you rig a "bungee tamer" for your tiller, you don't need a hand to steer while going downwind. And on the DS, you'll have the main out all the way, and leave the jib to its own devices, and suddenly you are only controlling two lines (one in each hand), with an occasional nudge of the tiller.

But, you do have to rig it, and for that you can look at this thread: "How to rig and fly a spinnaker".

Something to ponder in the off-season.

I take it you are either new-ish to sailing or a bit rusty. If that's the case: check out the "Basic Concepts and Techniques" thread for a refresher.

[Acornrunner]

I have been sailing a Force Five, akin to a Laser, one sail, highly responsive.

The Day Sailer hopefully will greatly extend my sailing season. I am thinking of rerigging, but honestly I'm thinking of setting up for Reefing ahead of a Spinnaker. I'm thinking adding a vang will also help depower the main sail.

I'm on Lake Springfield, Springfield, IL, any DS sailers in the area I can talk with?

[GreenLake]

As for your last question, why don't you start a new post in the Fleets/locations section of the forum. Might be a while for someone to respond, but that's where they'd see it. Be sure to put the location into the subject line.

Vang and reef will indeed help you depower the boat. If you sail without crew, you'll want a vang from about 10-12knots of wind and a reef from 14kts to keep it casual. If it's blowing that hard, you'll move downwind well enough with your standard sails (wing on wing being fastest). But if you have many days with winds in the 4-8kt range you'll wish for a spinnaker on that point of sail.

But it may take you a bit to get the hang of sailing with a jib, if you haven't before, and to get the interaction between these two correct. Enough to keep you busy for a season or two.

[Fly4rfun]

I have acquired some used sails, they have the PO sail number on them, is there a way to remove/paint over the existing numbers and add mine. I have used SEM paint which is for upholstery , dashes etc of autos, this might be a possibility

input appreciated

G..