Finding Sails for a Salt Bay Skiff?

[Charlie43]

The lowest cost sail offered by DuckWorks is a whopping $310 bucks. At 45sf, it might work on a SB. But that's a lot of money for someone to spend who already has $450 into a bare hull and hasn't yet built spars, rudder, dagger board, nor bought paint or varnish. By contrast, Intensity Sails offers far cheaper options.  I've bought from them, as I have from DuckWorks, and believe both are reputable venders. https://www.intensitysails.com/

Another path to obtaining a sail is SailRite. They used to offer sew-your-own kits for most small dinghies. But that option seems to have faded in favor of them building custom kits to your specifications. When I did price their pre-made kits years ago, they weren't cheaper than buying a ready-made sail.

A third path is to buy a used sail. I've gone that route as well and had good luck replacing a lateen sail for my Sunfish. But buying used sails really is buying a pig in the poke, and  the resellers tend not to have much of an inventory  of sails meant for small dinghies.

A fourth option is to cut a sail from Tyvek. There are several online tutorials. Here's one of them.
https://howdyyadewit.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-make-your-own-tyvek-sails.https://howdyyadewit.blogspot.com/2013/10/how-to-make-your-own-tyvek-sails.html
 
A fifth option is a poly tarp sail. Again, there are plenty of online tutorials and testimonies about their reasonably decent performance. So which path you choose depends on  how tight money is, how much you enjoy doing projects, and how important top-notch performance is to you.  Were it me making the choice for you and money were tight, I'd go with a new sail from Intensity, an Opti at 38sf if you want to under-canvass or a Laser 4.7 at 51sf if you want stick with designer-specified square footage.

The risk in going with a single, tall, 51 sf sail is the strong leverage from the wind you're going to have to learn to manage. The advantage of going with an shorter Opti sail and a Genoa headsail is that you'd be be equipped to sail in a wide variety of wind conditions, or in everything that sailors call "light air" to "heavy air' or roughly Force Two on the Beaufort Scale to Force Five. And if you aren't familiar with that scale, stay ashore if the wind is creating moderate waves whose tops are breaking.  A skilled dinghy sailor could manage in those conditions. In fact, they'd have a lot of fun. But that's weather you don't sail a Salt Bay in unless wet-suited and ready to recover from a capsize, because the wind never blows steady. It gusts,  then eases off, then picks up. If you aren't in synch with those changes, then over you go in an unwanted swim with the wind trying to blow your boat away from you faster than you can swim after it. If you did hang onto the mast sheet and didn't end up underneath the sail, you still have the problem of righting the boat, getting yourself back into it, getting the boat bailed out, and then getting underway again.  

So here's a quick question:

"What's the definition of a 'superior yachtsman?"
Ans: A 'superior yachtsman" is someone who uses his superior judgment to avoid getting himself into situations he'd have to use his superior skills to get himself out of."

So, where does 'superior judgment' come from? From 'experience',  obviously. And where does 'experience' come from? Bad judgment. So be prepared to get wet as you learn to sail, and practice recovery,  so that when a capsize does happen, you know how to manage it.