Chimacum Junior/Senior High School recently partnered with local sailmakers to illustrate the real-world relevance of math and geometry lessons while making what might be the largest tall ship mainsail in the country.

Marrowstone Island’s family-owned Force 10 Sailmaking and Rigging lacked a loft space large enough to assemble the approximately 2,900-square-foot, 3,000-pound mainsail for the New York-based nonprofit Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, a single-masted traditional sailboat.

So, Force 10 co-owner and sailmaker Nahja Chimenti teamed up with Daniel Evans, who teaches construction trades and careers for the Chimacum School District’s Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs.

The Chimacum school provided Force 10 with space enough to assemble the Clearwater’s sail, and Chimenti joined Evans’ class for two days, to help his construction trades students learn how to take their ideas from illustrations to physical creations.

According to Evans, this involved “a fair bit of math and, best of all, drawing all over the floor, when we lofted a diagram of a scaled-down version of the final sail.”

Evans appreciated the opportunity to emphasize the value not only of developing employable tradespersons’ skills, but also of professional partnerships with the surrounding community, that he touted as significantly impacting that same community.

“Some students are getting math credits for real-life experience,” Evans said. “And Nahja has helped show all these students how theoretical work can translate into real-world benefits for businesses and their employees.”

The two days of classroom activities paved the way for Evans’ fourth, fifth and sixth-period career choices and construction classes to not only watch sailmakers assemble the Clearwater mainsail in the multipurpose gym on Friday, Nov. 22, but also get some hands-on participation.

Although Chimenti considers herself a traditional sailmaker, she conceded that her trade takes advantage of a few modern tools, such as computers, which ensure the precision of the sail’s component segments, so that it “fits together like a jigsaw.” And constructing the sail’s canvas from synthetic fiber, that won’t deteriorate like cotton or linen.

“There’s not a lot of margin for error,” Chimenti said. “Nitpicky details matter. Accurately measuring the areas of the triangles that make up the sails will determine the correct cost of those sails, in terms of how much material needs to be bought. If you come up short, that sail cloth is often shipped from the East Coast, or even England, so not only does it cost more, but it doesn’t arrive right away.”

Chimenti was heartened to see so many students — 72 middle and high-schoolers — since she acknowledged “there are fewer sailmakers every year.”

While Chimacum 11th-grader Wesley Short wasn’t swayed into becoming a sailmaker, seeing sailmakers at work appealed to his hands-on nautical streak, since he’s already attending a maritime program at the West Sound Technical Skills Center in Bremerton.

“I’m always interested in trying out new things,” said Short, who’s liked learning about life on the ocean, and how boats are designed to operate on the water, as he plans to enter the construction field. “I’ve never seen a sail made before. It’s pretty cool how much they’re able to build by hand.”

Evans even invited students to volunteer that Saturday for an additional round of sailmaking, through which they could earn community service credits, although he stipulated they would be required to commit a minimum of two hours to those efforts.

“I’m guessing this is the only place in the country where something like this is happening,” Evans said.