The main sail cover on our sailboat was simply falling apart and I was forced into having to make a new one.  It wasn’t as if the seams needed to be re-stitched it was just that the material was giving up. 

We found some sunbrella at a garage sale that matched in color with the rest of the boat so we bought it.  I had enough to make a new main sail cover plus two new teak handhold covers.  I found some UV resistant thread at Wally-world…aka Walmart, reused the zippers from the old cover and used my Pfaff 130 to sew it.  I also used the old cover for my pattern. 

I think all of us have heard of ‘Sailrite’ and I bought basting tape from them, this was very helpful.  I also found they have some very great youtube how to’s, so if you haven’t already you can ‘visit them’ and order a catolog.  They have a number of kits and are very helpful.  Below is the first in a series of how to’s for making a cover.  You can find the remaining ones once you’re there. 

Watch the first step in making a new main sail cover.

A new main sail cover for our Newport 30 sailboat was really easy to make and if you can sew a straight seam, you can make one too!