restoring sail color

A friend of my wife gave me a set of Orange Crusher sails that are in pretty decent condition except they were rolled up and left under his house for twenty years (but not in a sail bag). The sails are crisp and, except for the bottom panel, are a very bright orange color. The bottom panel is a faded tangerine color from exposure. Is there any way to dye or otherwise restore color to Dacron sails? Could a sail maker replace one section since it is partially separated from the bolt rope there as well? How hard would it be to find orange Dacron?

Could a sailmaker replace the panel? Yes.

Would it be the same as original? Not likely. They would most likely have to use the old panel as a template for the new panel.

Is it worth it for a 35 year old sail? No.

I wouldn't even try to match the color. The likelyhood of color matching a 35 year old faded sail with a new panel is basically nil. If you went with the panel replacement, I would go with a totally different neutral color like black or white. But really, you're looking at a lot of cusom work on a very old set of sails. You would be much better off saving your $$ and buying a brand new set of custom sails.

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just curious, where would someone buy custom sails? are there a "few" great producers or just google search?

Maybe I'll just put a window in it.

I have an older Orange Crush boat and love the look of the all orange sails.

When they say 'custom sails' on this forum, they typically mean custom colors. You can purchase them thru Hobie dealers. Or you can use the standard colors, or white (which are the cheapest). You also have the option of buying them from other sailmakers that all have patterns for Hobie 16 sails, just know that the sail shape has changed over the years as the mast rake has been modified. I have put modern sails on my old Hobie, and they seem to fit fine, although I am not a competitive sailer, so my expectations are not that I would push everything to the edges.

In all, I like the idea of have a clear bottom panel if they can do that, or just white bottom panel with a window. Black down there would also look great (like Halloween!).

Let us know what you end up with!!

_________________
Steve
2017 Hobie 16 "Cayman" sails 114795
1985 & 1973? Hobie 14 "Sea & Ski"