use/discard old cotton sails?

[Treewater]

Hello,

I see I now have three old cotton sails. Do I use them, patch them, store them or what? If they have historical value I would hate to ruin it. I have seen that done in other areas (ex; electrifying whale oil lamps) and would not like to ruin something of value to someone else simply because I want to sail. I'll need new sails eventually and prefer dacron.
Tim

 

[Benson Gray]

I suspect that the historical value of most old cotton canoe sails would be limited. These are most commonly used as patterns for making dacron replacements. If yours are in good shape then you can always keep them in case you ever find another use for them.

Benson