REPLICATING A 1908 MORRIS LATEEN SAIL Todd Bradshaw
Years ago, I bought a copy of the WCHA reprint of the 1908 Morris Canoe Company catalog and I’ve always really liked the look of the lateen sail rig that they showed as an option. The sail is nicely proportioned, simple and nononsense but elegant. It’s hung just high enough that the boom’s nose clears the gunwales, which will improve performance by reducing the wind’s heeling force, and the non-battened, hollowed leech edge should resist flapping and adds a nice visual sweep to the shape. The sail was cotton and divided up into very narrow, vertically oriented panels. This was done for a couple of reasons. For one, some types of fabric back then weren’t made as wide as they can be on modern looms. More importantly, the closely-spaced seams on the old cotton sails helped control the fabric’s stretch. Some were real seams, where two pieces joined. Others are “false seams”. They look like seams, but are actually ridges where the cloth has been folded back on itself and then forward again, forming a small “Z” in cross-section and sewn down. They reinforced a larger section of cloth with little “load bands”, resisting bias stretch and helping the sail hold its proper shape. By covering the sail with a combination of seams and false seams, dividing it into narrow panels between the seams, it simply made a better performing, longer-lasting sail than using full-width panels of cotton. It also looked better. Some famous designer once claimed that any sail with panels wider than a couple of feet looked like a bed sheet. There is some truth to this. The Morris sails and early Old Town sails all had this simple, narrow-paneled, elegant look. The only advantages of cotton sailcloth today are that it is very soft and limp when you have to handle/fold/stow it, and it’s quiet - doesn’t rustle in the wind much. In just about every other possible category (performance, durability, lifespan, resistance to rot/mold/mildew, strength, shape-