Many lofts regard Cruising Sailors as second class sailors and
think they would never know the difference between a good sail or a bad sail.
We disagree. As a cruising sailor you want just as much performance out of
your sail as a racing sailor would. So we spend as much time in designing
the optimum cruising sail as we do with our race sails.
Do I need a new sail?
Quite often the answer is no. There are plenty of repairs and alterations
that can be done very successfully to increase the life of existing sails.
This ranges from new UV strips on genoas to re-profiling edges on mains and
genoas which have been poorly looked after. The most common problem with cruising
sails is the general wear and tear which results in them losing shape. The
cloth stretches over its life and once this happens there is very little that
can be done so then your best option is a new sail rather then spending good
money on a poor sail.
There
are a huge number of cruising cloths available, but they can easily be narrowed
down to 2 types.
- A cross cut woven Dacron cloth
Woven cloth is the most durable but cheaper than the laminate however it does
have shape holding problems due to stretch when under load. This is a problem
with all woven cloth. Due to being cross cut the thread line does not match
all of the stresses of a sail especially when a sail is reefed but this is
still a better option than radially cutting a woven sail.
The woven cloth for cross cut is 2.5- 5 times stronger across the role where
as woven cloth for radial sails is balanced equally.
- Radial cut Cruising Laminate
Cruising Laminate is also a very durable cloth but it has the advantage of
a laminate construction so stretch is 30-50% less than the woven cloth. The
cloth was designed around the Open 60 single handed yachts for performance
and durability. This cloth has a woven laminate on each side for longevity
and thick load bearing strands in between to align all the stresses of a sail
to reduce stretch.
We
offer Fully batterned, conventional or inmast reefing mainsails all of which
are specifically designed to suit each customer's requirements.
Features:-
- Professionally measured and designed by ourselves.
- Use of quality fabrics chosen for the job in mind whether it be cruising
around the harbour or sailing offshore.
- Sailman Fully Batterned systems available.
- Reefs.
- Battens.
- Tell tales.
- Sail bag.
Optional Features:-
- Lazy Jacks.
The problem sail makers often encounter is balancing the size
of the sail against cloth weight and intended use. There is no point in making
a very strong heavy sail capable of an Atlantic Crossing only to be used around
the Coast. So although our questions are informal they enable us to match
a sail to you, and to your boat.
Features:-
- Professional Design and measurement.
- Tell tales.
- Quality fabrics.
- UV protection strips.
- Spreader patches.
- Sail bag.
We also design and manufacture cruising spinnakers and cruising chutes. Which have the option of being supplied with snuffers for ease handling the sail.