Latell Sailmakers: Lance Barton and Melanie Tennant

Jerry Latell of Latell Sailmakers and his partners Lance Barton and Melanie Tennant in Deltaville have revived the local sailmaking tradition in the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck. Latell owns and operates the only sail loft in Deltaville, once considered the wooden boatbuilding capital of the Chesapeake Bay.

October 4, 2010; 11:37 AM • by RVANews staff

Sailmaking
Deltaville, Virginia

Sailmakers were once as common on the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck as automobile mechanics are today. Sail-powered log canoes and bateaux bustled on local waterways and were the primary means of commercial transportation. The days of small sail-powered workboats pretty much ended with the introduction of gasoline and diesel engines. The craft of making sails, however, continued to serve larger sailing craft, such as the schooners that worked the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. The job of making these big sails was mostly confined to large sail lofts in Baltimore and Crisfield, Maryland, and Norfolk. After World War II, a change in the American lifestyle brought the profession of sailmaking back, with the increasing popularity of recreational sailing opening the door for a new breed of sailmaker. Jerry Latell of Latell Sailmakers and his partners Lance Barton and Melanie Tennant in Deltaville have revived the local sailmaking tradition in the Middle Peninsula and Northern Neck. Latell owns and operates the only sail loft in Deltaville, once considered the wooden boatbuilding capital of the Chesapeake Bay. As a result of their ability to make both traditional and contemporary style sails, Latell and his crew recently constructed a 4,000-square-foot sail for the Jamestown replica of Susan Constant, which was the largest of the three ships that carried settlers in 1607 from