Before ordering a new sail
Important key point to deside which sail to buy
What to consider
A review of your rig type, furling system, mainsail headboard, batten cars, sail sleds is also important. Some items may be reusable for your new sails to save money, or must renewed because they are worn out or new improved items are much better.
A good talk about your sailing life and expected future sail is also key factors before ordering a new sail. Because the amount of sailing, where you sail and how you want to sail can have a huge impact of your sails lifespan.
Key points
- Are you doing a Circumnavigation
- Are you doing Racing, cruising or both
- Flying sails, a chapter of it self
- Be sure to get the right size
- Can some items be reused
- Why choose us to help you
These key points are described in details below
Circumnavigation
Are you planning a world circumnavigation, then your sails need to be much stronger than normally recommended for your boat type, than if your are a costal pleasure sailor. Sailcloth manufacturers usually set the sailcloth dimensions in relation to the boat size to what will give a lifespan of at least 10 years based on normal use and appropriate maintenance and protection from UV radiation. Zipbags that are not closed or furling sails that are not rolled in completely, so that the sailcloth is exposed to constant sunlight, can halve the lifespan. On a circumnavigation of the globe, you can sail more nautical miles than most people sails in 10-15 years, so both mechanical wear and UV degradation can be 10-15 times more. Therefore, there must be much more sail weight to compensate for these effects.
Racer, cruiser or both
If you, on the other hand, are a racing sailor, or do both cruising and a racing, then it may be a compromise on how much you want to prioritize your chances of knowing compared to the amounts you want to allocate for this. Dacron polyester sailcloth has a steadily decreasing stability strength but a long final durability before they break. But this also means that it does not take long before they do not hold the optimal shape and this is not optimal for racing sailors and for tod sailors you must expect to have to rig earlier than when the sails were new. On laminate sail cloths, where various very stable high tech threads have been glued in, such as Carbon, Vectran, Kevlar in relation to the loads, the shape is held much better under all conditions and they maintain that shape stability over a large part of their service life. Elvstrøm Sails EPEX and the brand new XYLO membranes is precisely a type of sailcloth that excels with these strengths, although with a steep curve down towards the end.
Flying sails, a chapter of itself
In the past, it was common for sailboats to have masthead rigs with large genoas and smaller mainsails, and then the flying sail was a spinnaker that could be designed for cutting courses, especially with the wind directly astern. But the development has gone in the direction of wide fractional rigs with backward-pointing stays, self-tacking jibs and large mainsails. This makes tacking against the wind much easier, especially for people who only sail short handed, because you have to pull the many meters of genoa sheet home. But already from just a little open courses with a little slack on the jib sheet, the jib loses its top, which you try to compensate by not slackening enough for the jib to pull optimally. This, together with new types of sailcloth, has led to a rapid development of flying sails from cable code zero, cable-free code zero and a wide range of gennakers that can be with a furling system, sock or Deckchute.
Right size of your new sails
Elvstrøm Sails have rig drawings on most common common boats and can give a quite out of the standard measurements and you can also measure your old sails by yourself. But we se often especially furling headsails missing 20-40cm in the top, which lead to the halyard running too parallel with the headstay risking getting wrapped around the headstay which can lead to fatal lost of the mast. Therefore a correct measurement of the rig is better than to redo old mistakes.
Can some items be reused
Sometimes items like batten cars and sail sleds and even battens can be reused to your new mainsail to save some money. Sometimes its simply better to get new ones, because the old once are worn out or there are new improved items that will make your handling much easier. Also because your 10-15 years old items hold 10-15 years more with the new sails.
Here we are
With more than 40 years sailing experience among them as professional sailor, building race sailboats and many thousand nautical miles on many boats, we have the experiences is what we like to use for the above mentioned things, whether you have a permanent place in Mahon, or come as a guest sailor. As we are Elvstrøm Sails Superyacht Palma service point Menorca, we are helpful with all sizes of tasks with backup and service from Palma. We also make sure to get the sails back and forth between Mahon and Palma.