My original mainsail is long past its best and needs to be replaced. It was made by Elstrom from lamnated cloth cross cut with short flat vertical batterns as its in mast furling. I'm undecided on the replacement. I could go for a basic dacron cloth cross cut with full length vertical batterns or something sexier like a reinforced polyester woven fabric radially cut with full length battens. I wonder if that would be worththe extra cost - about 50% more.I don't want a laminated sail - lifespan too short. Would there be a noticable improvement in performance with the more expensive sail - including when reefedand would it last? Another option is to have special UV resistant polyester thread to sew the panels together. Any advice appreciated
I have the Elvstrom so-called "offshore quality" (by some Bavaria dealers they are called "racing") furling sails, which have a radial cut. The main has full-length vertical battens and the genoa has foam stripes.
I believe the closest current material available from Elvstrom is the "crosscut Hydranet".
In my opinion, these sails are well worth the extra money - the performance is significantly better than that of basic Dacron sails.
The only weakness would be the vertical battens, which increase the inevitable wear at the contact-points with the spreaders. Therefore, I have had reinforcements sewn onto the sail to protect from chafe on the spreaders.
By the by: I am currently considering an upgrade to Elvstrom's EMS Max (EPEX/Technora) laminate sails, with Taffetta layers on each side.
good idea about reinforcement at the spreaders. I would be interested to know how old your sails are + how much use as I am hoping any new o es I get will last a decent while
These "offshore" sails are nearly 5 years old. The sailing season in Northern Europe is short though, only about 5 months.
I reckon the sails have sailed about 3500 nm. They are still in really good condition.