Sails made of cotton, however, are very stiff, which makes them difficult to handle.
Wooden dhows with triangular lateen sails made of stitched-together maize bags skittered past.
Sails made of Dacron maintain just the correct amount of stretch and so require no "breaking in" period.
He talked about the indigenous Miskito laborers who build his cabana roofs, arriving from the coast in one-man wooden boats with sails made of plastic sheeting.
Even that tireless mogul Barry Diller, I've heard, occasionally kicks back on his yacht, with its sails made of money, and surrounds himself with the suntanned superrich.
It has nine masts, each 164 feet tall, with five rigid sails made of aluminum and fiber-reinforced plastic; the sails are hollow, designed to telescope into one another in rough weather or at anchor.
Using the Newell as a guide, curators rebuilt the C. Andrews — in particular the sails, made of mica, and the rigging and masts, made of glass, which were shattered.
They are made for the downwind prevailing breezes of the west-to-east course, with wide, flat, stable sterns that skim across the waves at high speeds and massive sails made of strong, lightweight fibers like Kevlar and Spectra.
Desserts turn heads, especially the "red sails in the sunset": three sorbets in a sailing ship made of almond cookies with white chocolate masts and lemon meringue oars.
