This is the part that means going to the boat. The goal is not to design anything — it is to describe accurately what is already there, so that the sail can be built to meet it.
You may not need every item on this page. Start with the information you have. During review, the sailmaker will identify any photograph or measurement still needed for your particular sail.
Photographs beat measurements
For hardware, a clear photograph is worth more than a number, and much more than a model name guessed from a catalogue.
A photograph shows the shape, the orientation, the hole positions, the wear, and the things nobody thought to ask about. A model name is useful when it is stamped on the part and you can read it; it is actively misleading when it is a guess, because parts that look alike at arm’s length frequently do not interchange.
So the rule is: photograph it rather than name it. If the model is legible, send both.
How to photograph hardware
Include a ruler or a tape in the frame, laid flat beside the part. Scale is the single most useful thing you can add, and without it a photograph of a slide is a photograph of a shape.
Three angles: from the front, from the side, and in the direction it fits or enters. A part photographed from one angle is ambiguous.
Assembled and apart, where it comes apart. One photograph of the connection made up and one of it separated tells more than either alone.
In position first, then close up. A close-up of a fitting with no context loses which way up it goes and where on the boat it is.
Photograph wear. Where the old sail has chafed, worn or torn is evidence about what the rig actually does, and it locates protection on the new sail. Say when the wear happens if you know — at anchor, on one tack, when reaching.
How to measure
Where a measurement is genuinely needed, four things have to be recorded with it.
Where it starts. Where it ends. The state of the system when you measured — halyard tensioned or slack, boom where, furler how. A photograph showing what you did.
A number on its own is not a measurement. “Luff 12.35 m” does not say whether it was taken from the halyard shackle or the head fitting, or whether the furling gear was included. The same edge measured two defensible ways can differ by a hundred millimetres, and that is the difference between a sail that hoists and one that does not.
Use the right tool. A steel or fibreglass tape that does not stretch. Ordinary rope stretches enough over a mast height to matter. For anything hoisted, attach a retrieval line so the tape cannot be lost or jammed aloft.
Measure twice, independently. If the two readings differ by more than a normal reading error, something moved — a twisted tape, different tension, or an endpoint you chose differently the second time.
Say which side. Port, starboard, inside, outside, looking forward or aft. This matters for UV covers, furling direction, logo placement and any asymmetric fitting, and “the left side” without a viewpoint means nothing.
An existing sail that fits is your best source
If the sail you are replacing sets well and hoists fully, its dimensions are more reliable than a rig measurement, because they already account for the hardware at every corner and the halyard travel available.
Measure it laid out flat on a clean surface, with the edges straight but not stretched.
Two cautions. An old sail may have stretched, so its edges may be longer than they were built. And a sail that does not fit well should not be copied — measure it, and say what is wrong with it.
What not to do
Do not go aloft without proper equipment. No measurement on this list is worth a fall. If something can only be reached by climbing, say so and we will find another way.
Do not measure a damaged rig. If the mast, boom, bowsprit or a deck fitting is damaged or suspect, that needs a rigger before it needs a tape.
Do not guess an endpoint. If it is not clear where a measurement should start or stop, photograph the area and ask. A confidently wrong number is worse than no number, because it will be believed.
Do not judge structural capacity. Whether a fitting can carry a load is not something to assess by looking at it.
A practical sequence
One trip to the boat, done in order, beats three trips.
- Start the configuration first, so you know what is actually being asked for.
- Take the list to the boat.
- Overall shots first: the whole rig, the mast from base to top, the boom, the bow.
- Then each interface: mast track and slides, head, gooseneck and tack, boom and reefing, clew and outhaul, sheet leads.
- Then anything unusual, and anything worn.
- More photographs than you think you need. They cost nothing and a second trip does not.
Who is responsible for what
You are responsible for what you send being from your boat and honestly recorded. Nobody can verify remotely that a tape was held on the right point.
We check what you send for internal consistency and against your photographs — dimensions that cannot coexist, hardware that does not match the attachment type, a photograph that shows a different part from the one selected. That is what Sailmaker Review is.
What review cannot do is see the parts of your boat you did not photograph.
Sail-specific lists
Each sail type’s guide has its own list of exactly what to photograph: