Lots o' patches

Each of the four corners of the Lug need additional reinforcement to bear the load and distribute it to the rest of the sail without failure.  My references agree that the size of each patch should be about one inch of length per foot of sail.  Since I'm working in metric anyway, I just decided to use a 10% rule of thumb.  I had considered getting fancy with the shapes of the patches, but I came to realize that simple triangles would be easiest to sew, given the fact that the sail is full size now.

I worked it out on paper first.  Each patch edge is 10% of the sail's edge, which makes for unequal sides and sizes.  At first I had thought to have more symmetry, but I didn't like the look on paper.  This drawing doesn't reflect the actual shape of the throat patch though.

I made paper templates first.  This would allow me compensate for the edge tapes as well as to make note of the cloth's weave direction.  The proper technique is to match the weave of the patch to the weave of the sail to prevent puckering or other odd transfer of strain.

This cutout comes from a patch on the luff, not the leech seen in the previous photo.

The guidance is for three or four layers that are set back at least an inch from each other.  I chose to divide the exposed portion of the largest patch (i.e. what is not covered by the edge tape) into thirds.

Leech patches

Luff patches

Peak patch

The reefing the sail reduces the length of the sides.  I scaled the intermediate reinforcements to match the length of the sail at that point.  The result is the graduated sizes above.

The one patch that isn't triangular is at the throat.  Many sails  feature a semi-circle at this point, but I continued my 10% scheme and found that it results in a miniature version of the full lug itself.  Once I realized that would be the shape, I was hooked.

Here they all are.  This clearly shows how each patch is different in size.  It looks a little awkward since they're so close to each other, but I'm confident they'll look good once they're attached.

 I'm glad I took the time to lay out the sail and position all the patches because I found out that the throat and the peak were not shaped correctly somehow.  I would have noticed when trying to sew them on of course, but I'm glad I found out earlier.

Some awkward rolling of the cloth was required to stitch each patch.  I did three seams in this direction, unrolled to the next patch and repeated.  Then I opened the whole sail again, this time rolling on a different axis to do the other seams.  Fun, but time consuming.

I haven't yet attached the throat or the peak patches.

Next up: edge tapes