Nothing more satisfying than fixing gear or making things for your own boat. I can’t imagine a good excuse to go cruising without a simple sturdy sewing machine, and if you have a hand crank one, then its quite nice to work on deck, or at a pik-nik table under a tree. I’ve made the curtains for my boat, repaired children’s clothes, made tools rolls, a few small bags, and even fixed a leather watch band with my vintage Singer 15.

For $40 Canadian I found this on Kijiji. It is a simple straight stitch sewing machine onto which I put a hand crank available from Amazon.

Here is the hand crank I added, it would fit any vintage sewing machine that has a spoked wheel, and the raised ridge with single bolt hole for Mounting. If you’re not about to spend the money on an expensive machine, I can’t imagine a good excuse for not getting a vintage singer and adding a hand crank.

Quite obviously it won’t do sail corners, or zig-zag as is recommended for Dacron, nor a half inch thick stack of webbing but these instances are fairly rare. For any serious sail sewing, most sailors will visit a sail loft to have professionally done, or it’s a strong chance that in a cruisers gathering place someone will have a zig-zag walking foot machine that you can get use of.