MovieChat Forums > Summer Rental (1985) Discussion > Why was a sail so hard to find?

Why was a sail so hard to find?

posted 17 years ago by NYG11
2 replies | jump to latest

Angus' search for a sail for the Barnacle goes down to the wire, but why? The movie takes place in Florida which, with it's hundreds of miles of coastline and year round warm weather, probably has more private boat owners than any other state! So why would it be so hard to find a sail? Supposedly it's because of the size of sail needed, but I live on the coast of FL and see sailboats of all sizes every day. The Barnacle didn't appear to be unusually large to me.

[–] shareen33612 17 years ago

i think because the boat was supposed to have been so big,like a pirate ship or something. even here in florida you would have to have a sail custom made for a ship that size.

[–] intrepidjournalist 15 years ago

It's a plot device. Sails grow on trees down here in FL. I bought a Pearson 43 in 2005 and it had a roller furling foresail. But included in the sail inventory were two sails that attached directly to the forestay (owner bought them before installing the furling system). I traded them in on a furling foresail in a sail shop in Sarasota that coulda outfitted the entire America's Cup fleet. There was no reason for Angus to do all that driving, in real life at least.

After 20 years of practice, I still can't spit like Josey Wales.