Help with Torn H16 Sail

I am trying to repair my friends torn sail. While sailing their Hobie 16, I tore open an old repair job. The tear is horizontal running from leech to luff about 18 inches above the foot of the sail, and the tear extends about the whole length of the bottom of the sail. The sewn on, double sided rip-stop nylon sail tape, which held the torn sail together, finally gave way. I'm not trying to turn this sail back into a high-performance sail, I just want it to be sturdy enough to sail on Lake Tahoe. Do I need to use sail bandage or can I use sail tape. If I can use sail tape, should I use nylon or dacron?

Any input is greatly appreciated.
-Gabe

I spent this past weekend inventorying all of the sails at the camp where I work and counted seven layers of tape along the leech of one of our flying scott sails, it looks terrible and certaintly does not have the preformance it used to but it still works and is allot better than buying a new $800 main. We always put tape on both sides of the rip and sew around the perimeter of the tape, works pretty well. good luck.

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The pessimist complains about the wind, the optimist expects it to change, the realist adjusts the sails.

Gabe,

Nylon is lighter weight for spinnakers.

If you could find a piece of dacron sailcloth large enough it would be perfect for this method.

http://www.sailingtexas.com/chowtopatchasail.html

Obviously not pretty, but compared to strips of tape and stitching what's the lesser of two evils?

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hobiejohn at earthlink dot net
Fleet 297