sails, recycled

From the working waterfront of Portland, Maine came a package the other day.  Inside were three seabags made of old sail material courtesy of Sea Bags.  The bags, two totes with whale tails and gray stripe sea sack, were compensation for the three old sails from Spartina that I had shipped off to them, at their expense, about a month ago.

I heard about this company from Bill, who had also shipped off sails to be recycled.  I mean what are you going to do with an old sail anyway?  This is an interesting business model that you can read about here.  For each sail shipped to Sea Bags they will give you one bag in return, the rest of the material goes into making their products - anything from totes to wine bags to shorts - which they sell online and through shops in Portland and Freeport.

A note with the bags explained they are are made of used sail cloth and as such there could be signs of wear on the material, which there were.  And because of the variety of colors and weights of the sail cloth no two bags are exactly alike.

There is a lot of character to these bags, very fine stitching and excellent workmanship.  And though the material used to make these particular bags is not from Spartina's actual sails, they will be a nice reminder of all the fun we had out on the water with those original sails.  The totes will go to the regular crew and builders of Spartina - my daughters.  And I'll keep the sea sack for myself to carry my day sailing gear.

Bill, thanks for a very good idea.

steve