> Going high tech. Clear plastic drop cloths. You get god knows
> how many square feet of material for just a few bucks at places like
> Home Depot or Wallmart.

> For installing them onto the spars I'll use carpet tape, which
> is double sided mylar. Can't say enough good about that type of tape.
> I plastic coated my window screens for winter use several years ago
> and they were still going strong, in spite of some very vicious winds
> and such.

> I've seen the poly tarps used, and don't personally like it too
> much. I've sailed enough with blinding sails to be absolutely sick
> of them. A low sail that one can't see through is an invitation for
> disaster. Sorta like that time we rammed that one boat racing because
> a certain skipper will not put windows in his sails. But I digress.
> :-)

That thought had actually entered my mind.

> I don't much like the use of eyelets for kayak scale sails. They
> cause tears and poor sail shape. Made all that much worse on a tiny
> kayak sized sail. Taping the cloth to the spar on the other hand should
> spread the load nicely, and keep sail shape better.

I was thinking of splitting my battens down the middle and trapping the sail in between it. hum... use tape on both sides, stain it and noone would know the difference. :)

> By using clear plastic tarps, carpet tape, fir dowels and cheap
> rope, I could probably make 20 sets of different sails for under a
> hundred bucks.

Sounds good, I'm going need to try several different configurations until I get it right anyway.

> Would an expensive custom made sail work better? Probably, but
> for my needs, I'd rather go cheap and play. In fact, I'd really hesitate
> on expecting a custom sail maker to do better for a kayak sail. They
> don't make them normally, and the needs are substantially different
> then your typical sail boat sail.

I think I'll leave it until I get the balance just right.

Now if I could just come up with a cheap roller jibs, I thought about a fishing spool and an aluminum tube, with appropriate size line of course.