New sails for an old lady...

9:10pm Thursday 31st January 2008

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ESSEX sailmakers are helping to breathe new life into an elderly yacht that still graces top classic races.

When the owners of the 19-metre Mariquita - Spanish for ladybird - needed a new mainsail, they turned to a firm in the Brightlingsea where she overwintered nearly 100 years ago.

Now, the team at James Lawrence Sailmakers is busy stitching together 3,300sq ft of polyester sail cloth, coloured cream to match the cotton sails of yesteryear.

The project is so big - probably the largest in the UK at the moment - that staff had to lay out and cut the fabric on the sports hall floor at the town's Colne Community School.