Lee Cloths

I have finished making and installing lee cloths for the two main settees. There was one already made for the aft cabin and it is recommended that you have enough for all persons that you would have onboard, so I made three more, for the settees and for the quarter berth.

First I measured the settees and figured out how wide I wanted the cloths and then I took our old main sail and cut the sail up into the sizes that I wanted. Then I bought some webbing. I folded a small seam in the sail cloth and then folded it over as thick as the webbing and pinned it. I tried to use regular pins but they wouldn't go through all that tough material, so I ended up using macrame t-pins. I asked around to see if I could borrow an industrial sewing machine, but no luck. I took the pinned lee cloths to a canvas repair guy and he sewed them for $30.00, and he did it in 4 days. I thought that was a real deal.

I bought a grommet kit and put grommets along the top of the cloths. It was really hard to make the holes to get the grommets in the cloth. The punch that came with the gommet kit was not good enough to punch through the webbbing and sail cloth, so we ended up drilling the holes for the grommets. Then I had to trim the holes up with a pair of scissors, this was really fiddily and tedious. I should have used an awl, I think I have one on board. Then Barry helped me screw down the lee cloths into the plywood of the settees. We used really big washers so that the cloth will not rip under pressure. I strung some line through the gommets and hung them from the grab rails at the top of the settees.

I cut the sail cloth 20 inches high and if I had it to do again I would make them a bit higher. I did not take into account the width of the cushion when I was measuring. When I got into the settee and laid down I found that I was in there pretty securely I don't think I or anyone else would fall out, but they do look a little short, although you can see over them fairly well and do not feel like you are in a coffin, which is what it looks a bit like.