Caribbean Compass

Beowulf does it again. The cruising Dashew family’s publishing powerhouse has now focused its energy–via author Dan Neri–on the subject of selecting, maintaining and repairing sails. Dan Neri, after establishing a successful independent sail loft and then becoming director of sailmaking for North Sails US, is now in charge of the North Sails Cruising Division. His step-by-step instructions, check lists and the book’s many detailed photos and drawings will help you help your sails.

What did your last sail repair cost? Could you have done it yourself–or perhaps even avoided the damage entirely? Investing in this book could save you major money in the long run by significantly increasing the useful life of your sails.

Sailmakers might want to keep a copy handy in the loft for care-and-repair reference, too!

All at Sea Magazine

Dan Neri built one of the largest sail lofts in North America. He then sold it to North Sails, where he now works as head of their Cruising Sails Division. Drawing on his vast experience as a sailmaker Neri has written a book dealing with this esoteric subject. In his introduction, Neri states: “I don’t expect anyone will read this book from cover to cover–as it is better to read it as a workshop manual.” Neri is wrong. Simply put this book is superb, you will want to read it from cover to cover. Richly illustrated, the information obtained from the captions accompanying the photographs only, justify the book’s cover price. Sidebars at the beginning of each chapter walk the reader directly to the relevant information, which is presented in a down-to-earth, no-nonsense way.

Neri takes you to the factory where they manufacture the various sailcloth. He then accompanies you into the sail loft and guides you through the intricacies of buying a new sail or having a damaged one repaired. And there’s more. Neri knows what it’s like to carry out emergency repairs to a vital sail while far from land–and that golden nugget is right there on the salty pages of his book.

In one chapter, Neri tells the reader of a visit to the sail loft at the Mystic Seaport Museum. Describing what he saw, Neri points out that the sail lofts that served the old whaling ship differ little from the modern lofts of today. For me such observations give this book a timeless quality. The author has mastered the age-old skills of sail making and, putting them into historic perspective, written a book for contemporary yachtsmen that will carry them forward into the 21st century. – Gary Brown

Voiles & Voiliers Magazine (France)

Dan Neri, head of the North Sails Cruising Division has written a guide that is very useful to cruising people…This 232-page book is illustrated with many photos and drawings that help you to take care of your sails while cruising and to better understand your sailmaker. With this guide you can also do some repairs yourself. (review translated from French)

Bluewater Sailing Magazine

The Complete Guide to Sail Care & Repair by Newport sailmaker Dan Neri, delivers just what the title suggests, a complete guide to taking care of your boat’s primary engine, the sails.

Care of your sails begins with maintaining them properly, thus avoiding, or at least postponing the repair part of this book, and while the sailmakers of the world might not appreciate one of their own telling sailors how to spend less money at their loft, for the rest of us, this is a valuable book.

Beginning with the design and construction of sails, there are things you can do, or have done, that will significantly increase their useful life, from proper batten pocket design to chafe prevention to hardware attachment. Neri runs North Sails’ cruising sails division, but his loyalties, as expressed in this book, are to the sailors, not the sailmakers, with refreshing honesty as he compares independent vs franchise lofts, that “a well- known logo is not always an indication of a superior standard of operation.”

The book is published by Steve and Linda Dashew’s publishing house, Beowulf Press (800-421-3819) and it has the familiar maroon cover of all their fine books. It is marvelously complete, and I speak here as the person who edited the book; having read it completely at least a half-dozen times. From the inception, the idea was to make this the one book a sailor should have onboard to ensure the sails were made right, taken care of properly and repaired correctly.

On the subject of repairs, Neri takes a very practical approach. While there is a chapter devoted to the selection and use of a heavy-duty sewing machine, there is much attention paid to the handsewing methods and repairs that will not only get you home, but also function well and durably.

The restoration of old, tired sails will be of interest to any cruiser who wants to get just one more tradewind passage out of that old main. The repairs, reinforcements and rejuvenation of old sails are dealt with very thoroughly, and while you will never make something out of nothing, you can certainly make something out of very little with Neri’s assistance.

The photographs are worthy of mention. Although they are all black and white, they are clear, sharp and well done. They show exactly what needs to be seen to illustrate the techniques, and there are extreme close-up shots showing sewing needles, stitches and sewing techniques that are unequivocally clear.

This isn’t a book to sit down and read; it’s a book to thumb through to become familiar with it, and then set it aside until you need it. It’s well indexed, has summaries of each page’s content at the margin and is designed to be a reference source. In this, it works admirably. – Greg Jones

• Click here to order The Complete Guide to Sail Care & Repair.