![\"clara](\"https:\/\/www.sailrite.com\/meet-our-customers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/clara-katherine.jpg\")
In Costa Rica, they met a couple on their third circumnavigation who\u2019d made a life of sailing the world. The friendly couple urged Amanda and Brian to sail the South Pacific, but they were short on money and didn\u2019t know how to sustain their new sailing lifestyle. When the other couple learned that Brian was an electrician and Amanda could sew sails and canvas, they insisted that they go. \u201c\u2018Just go!\u2019 they urged us,\u201d Amanda recalled. \u201c\u2018You\u2019ll make money along the way.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
They were right. \u201cI could have opened a full-service sail loft in Panama City with the amount of work that\u2019s generated by the thousands of boats passing through,\u201d Amanda stated. The couple sailed from port to port while Amanda made money along the way repairing sails and taking on other sewing jobs.<\/p>\n
When she was in her 20s, she talked her way into a job at a sail loft in Brooklin, Maine, where she learned how to build a sail from start to finish. Being that it was a small business in a rural community, the sail loft still did things the old-fashioned way. \u201cWe literally lofted sails on the wooden floor, using pins and string, rolling out cloth, and hand stitching the hardware that would connect the sail to the rig.\u201d Those skills served her well in her new life, as she had limited resources and even more limited technology on those remote South Pacific islands. \u201cI fixed sails in the Marquesas, spinnakers in Tahiti, built canvas enclosures in Tonga and dinghy chaps in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acquiring an Ultrafeed<\/b><\/h2>\n
In Bora Bora, they met a solo sailor who needed to fix his sail and was having a bit of trouble with his sewing machine. Learning that Brian was handy, the sailor asked him to take a look at his Sailrite\u00ae machine. Not knowing how to adjust the timing on a sewing machine, Brian couldn\u2019t help. Amanda repaired his sail using their own sewing machine and the three parted ways.<\/p>\n
A few months later, they ran into him again, this time in Whangarei, New Zealand \u2014 which goes to show how small the sailing community can be \u2014 and fate intervened. They\u2019d arrived just in time to rescue his Ultrafeed\u00ae LSZ from imminent doom. Fed up with the machine, the salty sailor was just about to chuck it into the harbor. He asked Amanda and Brian if they wanted the sewing machine, and they eagerly saved it from a saltwater funeral. It wasn\u2019t in the best condition, however. The sailor had stored it in his cockpit locker and the sewing machine had been routinely doused with saltwater.<\/p>\n \u201cThe case was covered in mold and all the metal parts were showing rust,\u201d Amanda explained. \u201cI cleaned off the mold, wiped clean all the metal and oiled everything, then packed it away because I didn\u2019t have time to deal with it at the moment. We\u2019d just been approved for work visas and decided to stay in New Zealand, so we were transitioning from cruising full time to working full time. We sailed the boat down to Wellington and got jobs that had nothing to do with sewing or sailing.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple didn\u2019t know much about the Ultrafeed or repairing sewing machines in general, so they took it to a repair shop in New Zealand. \u201cOne hundred New Zealand dollars later it was running fine and has continued to run perfectly ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n They already owned an old Italian Necci home sewing machine, but it couldn\u2019t always sew through some of Amanda\u2019s thicker fabric assemblies, such as canvas and genoa sunshields. The Ultrafeed never hesitated to power through anything Amanda was working on. They still have their Necci, but Amanda now uses their secondhand Ultrafeed for all projects and repairs.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause it was given to us, I consider it \u2018the people\u2019s machine\u2019,\u201d said Amanda, \u201cand I keep it overstocked with needles of all sizes and lend it to any cruiser in need. It\u2019s been ashore in countless countries as we worked our way across the South Pacific from New Zealand back to the U.S. I\u2019ve rebuilt our dodger twice, our bimini three times, made a new sail cover, sewed on a new genoa sunshield, stitched new salon cushions, built a foredeck sun awning\/rain catcher, repaired our mainsail, and on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2015, after years of sun, surf and sailing, they decided they were done with New Zealand and made preparations to cruise back to the U.S. \u201cWe picked the ping pong route,\u201d Amanda explained, \u201cbouncing between South Pacific islands against the trade winds and revisiting many of the islands we saw on our first pass through.\u201d They also decided to sail up to Micronesia and visit places they skipped the first time. \u201cIt took two and a half years, and we put about 12,000 miles under our keel, almost all of them hard on the wind in a boat that was not designed to go to windward efficiently.\u201d<\/p>\n All that cruising was hard on the sails, and by the time they got to Tahiti their genoa was on its last legs. \u201cIt was over 10 years old and had sailed something well north of 25,000 miles. I\u2019d already replaced the sunshield twice and, running my hands along the tired cloth, I could feel that it was sun rotten and approaching the point of no return in terms of repair. But we only had 2,000 more miles to go to Hawaii, and then another couple thousand to California. We were practically home! I made some repairs in Tahiti and we set off for Fanning Island, Kiribati. Along the way, it tore just inboard of the sunshield \u2014 a sure sign of sun rot.\u201d<\/p>\n They stayed on Fanning Island for two months enjoying the remoteness of the island and the friendliness of its inhabitants. While Amanda worked on repairing the genoa sail one last time, the locals kept the couple fed and hydrated with fresh fish and coconuts. \u201cThe key to a good sail repair is being able to stretch the cloth and pin it out as flatly as possible,\u201d Amanda noted. \u201cFor a 150 genoa from a 41-foot boat, I needed more space than we had on the boat, plus a porous floor to pin into.\u201d<\/p>\n The couple befriended a French expat who ran the only guesthouse on the island. He offered one of his sleeping huts, which provided enough flat space for Amanda to pin out and sew an enormous window patch repair across every seam of the genoa from head to foot. \u201cI used up every bit of sailcloth I had squirreled away on the boat, and then I reinforced the inboard section with sticky Dacron\u00ae, but I knew we were running out of time with this sail and hoped it would just stay together long enough to get us to Hawaii.\u201d<\/p>\n With just over 1,000 miles from Fanning Island to Hawaii did the sail hold? \u201cIt almost did. The next tear occurred by the luff, just outside the head patch \u2014 a sure sign of sun rot. Game over. We made it to Hawaii using our two spare, elderly, hank-on sails run on our Solent stay. On a grassy lawn in Waikiki, we spread out our genoa, took some measurements, cut off every useful bit of hardware, then put the old thing to rest in a dumpster.\u00a0My next project will be to build a new one.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sailrite is your one-stop DIY shop! We are a passionate crew of do-it-yourselfers who strive to equip you with the supplies and how-to knowledge you need to tackle your next project. Do you want to learn upholstery, leatherwork, canvaswork, hobby sewing, bag making or more? We have the fabric, tools, hardware, sewing machines and notions you need to master any DIY. And even if you’ve never sewn before, our tutorials and how-to videos are designed for beginners and experienced crafters alike.<\/span><\/p>\n Start your DIY journey today: www.sailrite.com<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Amanda](\"https:\/\/www.sailrite.com\/meet-our-customers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Amanda-sewing-window-patches-on-the-genoa-Fanning-Island.png\")
![\"Foredeck](\"https:\/\/www.sailrite.com\/meet-our-customers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Foredeck-sun-awning-that-doubles-as-rain-catcher-copy.png\")
Homeward Bound<\/b><\/h2>\n
![\"pjimage\"](\"https:\/\/www.sailrite.com\/meet-our-customers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/pjimage-4.jpg\")
Who We Are<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n