: Bill I have been thinking about using rip-stop nylon next time, . . .

Check out the rack with $1 a yard fabrics at your local Wal-mart. I've been able to occasionally find ripstop nylon there at really good prices. They don't always have great colors, but the stock changes over time, so wait until they have something you like.

: This is going to be tricky since I
: may not be able to get the sail material the sewing machine arm. If not I
: will have to sew by hand. Ugh!

Hand sew it? Ugh indeed! You'll get neater and stronger stitching doing this on a machine. Use plenty of pins to secure your pieces. Then you can roll, or fanfold, the bulk of the material which sits on one side of your line of sewing. You may be able to keep this together with clothespins.

With thin nylon or dacron you can easily get over 10 yards into a bundle which will fit through the sewing machine. Once it is rolled or folded the mass of fabric actually gives you a little advantage in steering the piece so that you sew a straight line.

The fabrics you'll be working with are thin and slippery. A lot of sewing machines have problems with feeding even small pieces evenly, but you'll be relying on the machine to pull a lot of fabric weight (the whole sail), so all the help you can give it will be needed. Try increasing the tension on the presser foot by a couple of notches and do some tests on scrap pieces.

One trick I've heard of is laying the fabric on top of a wide strip of paper ass you sew it. Cut 4"-wide strips from a newspaper. The feed dogs on the sewing machine grab the paper much better than they do the slippery fabric, and move it beautifully. You don't need to pin the paper to the fabric. After a few stitches the fabric gets stitched to the paper, and everything gets pulled through the machine evenly. After you have sewn the seam, you just tear away the paper. It should rip smoothly along the stitch line.

With, or without, the paper go slow, pushing the rolled-up bulk of fabric forward as you stitch.

Then enjoy your sail.

Hope this helps.

PGJ