Mastering the machine assures entry to the club
Issue 81 : Nov/Dec 2011
Defining moments can occur at any time. I was sewing a couple of covers for the new (larger!) winches Jerry installed this past summer, when one hit me (a defining moment, not a winch). To remember the steps involved in assembling these busy little winch hoods, I referred to Don Casey’s book, Canvaswork & Sail Repair and information from the Sailrite website (since I couldn’t locate our dog-eared copy of Jim Grant’s Complete Canvasworker’s Guide).
Flash! Wait a minute! Sailing men are the sewing experts? Marine author Don Casey needs no introduction. Jim Grant founded Sailrite in 1969. They’re both accomplished sailors who have written books on canvaswork. But what about Olga Casey and Connie Grant? Connie doesn’t sew (at least that’s what she’s been telling the whole Sailrite crew for decades). She has done much to support the Sailrite business, but sewing was never among her contributions. Olga, likewise, has done much to support Don’s publishing career. But she doesn’t sew.
I wondered, where is it written (chapter and verse, please) that sailing men sew, so it’s not important that their wives acquire the skill? I must have skipped that page in the sailing wives’ manual. Perhaps we were having a snow day here in Minnesota and I missed it? Did these women pull that stunt that some guys do in the kitchen, trying to look inept and putting things away in obscure places so their wives finally go into never-mind-I’ll-do-it-myself mode? I can visualize that a woman might feign fear of sewing machines.
It’s clearly not a gender thing. Sailors of both genders can and do sew everything from winch covers to mainsails. In his defense, I will say that Jerry is comfortable in front of our sewing machine and did at least half of the job when we built our own spinnaker last year. It really was a joint effort, as many of our projects are.
Furthermore, I knew I was going to be a sailing wife when I married Jerry. He was completely honest about it, although I’m not sure I understood all the terms and conditions, implied and otherwise, when we tied the knot 20 years ago. We didn’t exactly draw up a contract. And yet . . .
We have pink and blue roles on our boat, no question about it. While I was home sewing the winch covers, Jerry was laboring to install a windlass on the bow. Neither one of us could have done the other one’s job nearly as well, so our skills are not interchangeable even though they do overlap to some degree.
Besides, I decided, it’s clear that real sailors sew. Since I want to be a member of that club, right in there with Don Casey and Jim Grant, I might as well do what the guys do . . . and sew the canvas for my boat.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
