Tall Ships - Sail Ho! - Carl H.

Lego is not a cheap hobby.  Specifically, collecting old, discontinued, out-of-date Lego sets is expensive.  Depending on theme, certain scarce/unique pieces become much sought after, and therefore worth more than diamond encrusted caviar on the secondary market.  And when it comes to the Pirates theme, some of the most expensive pieces to source are the cloth sails.

"Ye say it cost how much now?"

Yes, a palm sized piece of linen with some holes punched through and a bit of printing is one of the most precious resources on this earth apparently.  Which is probably due to the fact that over time they fray and disintegrate into their component atoms or somesuch, so the world's supply is always dwindling.  Frankly, the only way they'd cost more is if you stuck an Apple Computers logo on it.

This is the point in the informational when the host's sidekick laments "Isn't there a better way?"

Maybe there is Bethaney-Sue Suarez.  Maybe, there is.

Last Sunday I stopped in at the local fabric store.  Officially, I was there to pick up embroidery floss for my wife (don't ask me, look it up yourself).  But hidden in my back pocket, I had one of the precious red and black sails I received when I bought the Black Seas Barracuda.  So for 15 minutes, while ostentatiously holding little bits coloured thread proudly in my hand to prove I belonged there, I fingered bolts of cloth trying to find one with the same texture and thickness as my reference piece.  I came pretty close with an off-white twill off cut.

That's a lot of twill right there

After some confusion at the cash, as it appears that there is a ritual you must follow that is reminiscent of Seinfeld's Soup-N***, it was finally agreed that my nearly 1 m of fabric cost me all of $2.80.  The embroidery floss also happens to be the right sized thread to be used as rigging line.  They were priced at three for a $1.09, so I got one for myself for ~ $0.40.

Now came the pricey bit.  I needed to punch clean holes in cloth.  Which meant a visit to Michaels, land of overpriced craft supplies and doodads.  It was a madhouse on the weekend, so rather than wait in the hour+ line-up I headed out yesterday at lunch and picked myself up a leather hole punch ($16), as well as a fine brown sharpie ($2).

All my purchases came to the same cost as buying two or three used Lego sails. But was it worth it?

Eat your heart out Martha Stewart

I put on Star Wars III last night and settled in for some sail-making.  While the leather hole punch proved not to be the perfect tool, it worked decently enough and before I knew it I had a complete set of new sails for my Caribbean Cruiser.

Historically, sails were dry cleaned by the french navy

I obviously haven't rigged up the spanker or aft sails yet, but it gives you an idea of what I managed to accomplish so far.  The process isn't complete however, as I still hope to borrow my wife's clear nail polish to seal the cuts (no spontaneous atomization for my creations!) and I may use the sharpie to draw vertical lines on the sails as they are pretty dull looking atm.

I declare the over-expensive sail problem solved. Now all I need is some more ships!