Has anyone purchased the sail kit from ZHL for the Soleil Royal? I am trying to find some plans for where they go and can’t get ZHL to respond back to me. There are 5 stay sails that came with the kit with no explanation
Hi
My ZHL Soleil Royal kit did not have sails.
I bought sails from Mantua (same scale). If you want I can send you the Mantua SR sail plan.
Just send me you email address
When you buy a sail set, they sometimes do not fit well. The best way to see which sail goes where is to match the head of the sail to the yard and foot of the sail to the yard below (if there is one). The hard part is determining which sail goes on the fore topgallant, the mizzen topsail, or the sprit topsail, because those are pretty close in size and shape (all trapezoidal). Only the width of the head of the sail can tell you which sail between those two. If you have rigged your mizzen topsail and crojack yards, the height between those to yards can help determine which of the three similar sails from the set fits there. By process of elimination, you should be able to see which sails go where.
On my first build, I bought a sail set that was supposed to fit the model, but they sails didn't fit the yard length and heights very well, and they were discarded in favor of home made sails. Another factor was the stitching and overly large reinforcement around the periphery of each sail, which was inaccurate. If you decide to measure, cut, and sew your own sails, it is a lot of work, but the appearance of home made sails is better than kit sails. You have to weigh the effort against the end result. Below is a comparison between the two types of sails. If you decide to tackle the long process of making sails, all of the forum members who have done them can walk you through the process. I learned how from watching Olha Batchvarov's video on sail making on YouTube. That alone took the fear out of sail making, and the techniques she demonstrated were copied and used for my first model. My estimated time for sewing them was much longer than it actually took. I had all the sails drawn on cloth, sewn, cut, and edges sealed with light application of CA glue in about three days.
Test fitting purchased sail set. The stitching at the edge seams doesn't have an accurate appearance, and some of the sails were a tad too short in width on the yards. There are no bolt ropes or loops at the clues, so you would have to add those.
Test hanging purchased sail set.
Comparison. This is a home made spritsail. Because of the small scale, the bolt rope around the periphery was only glued with PVA to the edge of the sail, not stitched, and the bolt ropes include the loops at the clews and cringles. The panel lines were sewn with the smallest stitch length that the sewing machine could do.
Comparison: this is how home made sails appear. My build log showing the process of sail making begins HERE.
On my first build, I bought a sail set that was supposed to fit the model, but they sails didn't fit the yard length and heights very well, and they were discarded in favor of home made sails. Another factor was the stitching and overly large reinforcement around the periphery of each sail, which was inaccurate. If you decide to measure, cut, and sew your own sails, it is a lot of work, but the appearance of home made sails is better than kit sails. You have to weigh the effort against the end result. Below is a comparison between the two types of sails. If you decide to tackle the long process of making sails, all of the forum members who have done them can walk you through the process. I learned how from watching Olha Batchvarov's video on sail making on YouTube. That alone took the fear out of sail making, and the techniques she demonstrated were copied and used for my first model. My estimated time for sewing them was much longer than it actually took. I had all the sails drawn on cloth, sewn, cut, and edges sealed with light application of CA glue in about three days.
Test fitting purchased sail set. The stitching at the edge seams doesn't have an accurate appearance, and some of the sails were a tad too short in width on the yards. There are no bolt ropes or loops at the clues, so you would have to add those.
Test hanging purchased sail set.
Comparison. This is a home made spritsail. Because of the small scale, the bolt rope around the periphery was only glued with PVA to the edge of the sail, not stitched, and the bolt ropes include the loops at the clews and cringles. The panel lines were sewn with the smallest stitch length that the sewing machine could do.
Comparison: this is how home made sails appear. My build log showing the process of sail making begins HERE.
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Wow! Those look amazing compared to the kit sails. I have used your advice and have figured out where the majority of the sails should go. The only sails that will be confusing are the stay sails, but we will see how it works out as the build comes along. I am still quite a ways off from masts and rigging. This is only my second build getting in to this hobby so I am still learning a lot. Thanks for the help!
That could come in handy! Nunfried84@gmail.com. Thanks!