Leading the Escapadevideo
Our Sail Tore in 40 Knots…10 Minutes Into the Crossing | Day 7 Continued... (Ep 220)
May 22, 2026 · 17 min · 10K views · The Bahamas
What this video covers
A headsail tears along its UV strip in 40-knot gusts roughly ten minutes into the start of a passage from the Bahamas toward Colombia, forcing the crew of Escapade to abort and anchor at a nearby island in the Ragged Islands to attempt repairs.▶ 5:52 The tear runs vertically about a third of the way down the sail, and once the headsail is on deck the crew discovers the surrounding fabric has delaminated badly, feeling like tissue paper.▶ 8:02 With no sailmaker available and a week-long passage ahead — plus a deadline to reach a friend's wedding in Cartagena — Jase, Janaye, Tom, and a local sailor named Hunter work through the repair themselves.▶ 7:04 They patch both sides of the tear with Sunbrella fabric and reinforce each patch with zigzag stitching on a sewing machine.▶ 14:22 The UV strip had been resewn in Tunisia roughly two and a half years earlier, and the crew suspects that seam created a weak point they had noticed but left unaddressed before departure.▶ 6:52 The repair covers a significant portion of the sail, and whether it holds for the full crossing to Colombia remains unresolved at the episode's end.▶ 15:40 Sail damage that looks manageable from the deck can prove far worse once the sail is fully lowered and laid flat.
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