Weaving
Combed singles yarn sailcloth in high counts is used for spinnaker and head sails. The count often is 148 by 160 and the fabric is finished at 40 inches (102 cm) wide with a weight of about 6.5 yds./lb (13.10 m/kg). The quality and weight of the weave can be more critical than the choice of fibers, since a poor weave can lead to high stretch and poor sail form. Weight is described in ounces, for example "an 8 oz. cloth". This means that an area of 28.5 inches x 36 inches weighs 8 ounces.
Sailcloth is woven in two forms: balanced and unbalanced. The yarns in balanced cloth are the same diameter and weight in lengthwise (the “warp”) and across the width of the cloth (the “fill”). Unbalanced means a heavier yarn is used in one direction. Most moderns sails are “crosscut”, which is an unbalanced technique where the heavier yarns is in the fill. This allows greater loads to radiate up from the clew (back lower corner) along the leech (back edge). This is especially true of mainsails and high aspect jibs.
Woven sail cloths have an inherent problem with stretch resistance. In a weave the warp and fill yarns pass over and under one another. As load is applied the yarns attempt to straighten out, this results in the fabric stretching, commonly referred to as ‘crimp”. Ironically, fibers which are resistant to stretching, cannot be woven as tightly as more flexible fibers such as PET, thus the cloth is more affected by crimp.
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Famous quotes containing the word weaving:
“The Tragi-Comedy, which is the Product of the English Theatre, is one of the most monstrous Inventions that ever entered into a Poet’s Thoughts. An Author might as well think of weaving the Adventures of Aeneas and Hudibras into one Poem, as of writing such a motly [sic] Piece of Mirth and Sorrow.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“If anyone should want to know my name, I am called Leah. And I spend all my time weaving garlands of flowers with my fair hands, to please me when I stand before the mirror; my sister Rachel sits all the day long before her own, and never moves away. She loves to contemplate her lovely eyes; I love to use my hands to adorn myself: her joy is in reflection, mine in act.”
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)
“Anthropologists have found that around the world whatever is considered “men’s work” is almost universally given higher status than “women’s work.” If in one culture it is men who build houses and women who make baskets, then that culture will see house-building as more important. In another culture, perhaps right next door, the reverse may be true, and basket- weaving will have higher social status than house-building.”
—Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen. Excerpted from, Gender Grace: Love, Work, and Parenting in a Changing World (1990)