Since most painted sails are woven dacron or laminate materials and which are virtually chemically inert, 'paint' used on such sails is only a temporary proposition ... ultimately resulting in flaking off and cracking, etc. of the grafix. Thats why the numbers and manufacturer insignia are not painted on sails.


An alternative would be the use of a adhesive backed lightweight 'insignia cloth' - the adhesive backed cloth that is used for sail numbers and insignias ... if the graphix is not too large. Such can be applied then the edges oversewn to keep the cloth in place.

The best time to do extensive graphics is when the sail is being assembled/sewn, then you can insert properly dyed sail fabric, do the necessary 'applique', etc. on relatively small unassembled panels/pieces ....... VERY hard to do on a fully sewn sail because of the 'bulk' under the sewing arm of a sewing machine.

BTW that 'eagle' on the spinnaker on my avatar was made by 'slashing out' the panels, and inserting 'the black' to make a uniform panel with aligned 'bias' to the cloth, ... the 'details' are adhesive-backed and sewn down 'insignia cloth'. You have to get the 'fiber alignment' correct with the inserted so that the panels stretch the same ... otherwise you will get 'puckers' when the sail is fully windloaded.

 

Maybe not such a good idea on a new sail, but, I love to see more expressive boats out there.

 

Sails can be painted or more correctly inked. there are severeal ways that it can be done. it can be painted on with a brush or roller they can be slik screened. they also can be dyed or printed with a dye. to do dye sublimation printing on a sail it is done before it is sewn together. some have used the dye with air brush. it does matter which sail material you are using as the dyes and inks are designed for the specific material. heres a spinnaker that was hand painted.