[duxup]

It doesn't strike me as surprising that the sail would take longer than the boat. The skill to make a boat is impressive but the mechanics of getting it done aren't enormous.

Fabrics and sewing, gathering and prepping those materials and the tedious work seems enormous.

[dimitrios1]

I encourage you to watch some videos online of traditional (mostly hand-tools) Shipwrights. Even with the use of a bandsaw to do the rough milling, it is an arduous and lengthy process. Shipwrights also work with some of the longest planks of wood any form of woodworking does. In the days before machines, there would be scores of workers simply preparing the wood and getting it ready for the ship building.

My hunch would be the reason shipbuilding is faster is it is easier to scale to multiple workers, and there are parts you can do in parallel.

[Ekaros]

The sewing of sail fabric is something different. You need to use heavy duty needle and force it through the fabric. It is somewhat similar I would imagine as dealing with leather.

Wood work deals with big pieces comparatively.

[taneq]

Reminds me of the comparison between computer software and hardware. Hulls are fairly linear. Sails are combinatorial.