3D sails

[Chiara’s slave]

Looking for opinions and/or experience. A new jib for the good ship Chiara, a Dragonfly 920 tri is going to be 2.5K regardless, a 3D moulded sail with vectran or aramid fibres isn’t quite twice that. Will it last, is it really quicker, and how well might it reef? We mostly cruise, but this might be because our jib is beyond knackered, we know we’d stand no chance against others in the class. We’d quite like the odd handicap race but our club PRO has officially banned us now, sadly, without giving us a chance.

 

[Laser310]

North 3Di sails will hold a good racing shape for longer than any other sail. How much longer.., it's hard to say.

Their strength to weight ratio is also better than any other sail.

They are particularly well suited for multihulls that race. Multihulls are very stiff - they don't heel.., and consequently the loads are higher than on monohulls with similar rig dimensions.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The strains are what has brought about the demise of the Pentex jib that came with the boat. The leech is hollow, and thrums going upwind, shaking the boat. The theoretical advantages of the construction are clear for us, justifying the cost is the hard bit. Elvstrom make them too, and as OEM sail supplier, I’m leaning that way rather than North. North’s USP is to lend you a guy to tune up your boat. I’ll be surprised if they’ve got a tri racer on their books.

 

[flaming]

Been running North 3Di for a while now.

It really is as good as the hype. We find we're getting about 4-5 seasons out of an inshore race main before the shape is a bit too draft aft. But structurally it's still absolutely fine. No sign of any damage at all. About the same from the J1 and J2, a bit more from the J3. The J3 being probably closest to what you'd spec I'd have thought.
For comparison we used to think a string sail main was good for 2 seasons, and you could eek a 3rd out of it but it tended to spend a fair amount of time in the loft.

 

[Praxinoscope]

To be honest I had to do a search to find out what 3D sails are.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Been running North 3Di for a while now.

It really is as good as the hype. We find we're getting about 4-5 seasons out of an inshore race main before the shape is a bit too draft aft. But structurally it's still absolutely fine. No sign of any damage at all. About the same from the J1 and J2, a bit more from the J3. The J3 being probably closest to what you'd spec I'd have thought.
For comparison we used to think a string sail main was good for 2 seasons, and you could eek a 3rd out of it but it tended to spend a fair amount of time in the loft.

Thanks Flaming, exactly the kind of info I was hoping for. It’s obvious they’ll suit our boat, VFM is what we need. We are willing to pay for the best if it really is. Out main is a conventionally constructed fully battened vectran laminate. It’s 10 yrs old, but the previous owner was scared of the boat, and had no crew. So fortunately that can wait.

 

[Ingwe]

Are you sure Elvstrom make anything equivalent to 3Di? From their website all I can see are standard 3D string membrane sails like all the other main manufacturers apart from North use for their race sails. They can be very good especially with something like a GPL lite skin membrane but I wouldn't say that they are quite as bulletproof as 3Di is.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Are you sure Elvstrom make anything equivalent to 3Di? From their website all I can see are standard 3D string membrane sails like all the other main manufacturers apart from North use for their race sails. They can be very good especially with something like a GPL lite skin membrane but I wouldn't say that they are quite as bulletproof as 3Di is.

Ok, I had understood them to be equivalent, but then, they would say that. Theres bugger all price difference. Strangely, Elvstrom want to make me a sail that’s too big, and North want to make it too small. Easily rectified, I hoisted my tape measure up the luff yesterday. The pentex main doesn’t fit well either, Mr Batt made that one a tad small. It sets very badly, but that’s most probably just that it’s knackered. It’s quite a lot of grunt on the winch to get the leech in to where it should be to beat effectively, I feel the old jib just wasn’t up to it. It’s not seem a lot of hard use til this summer.

 

[flaming]

Ok, I had understood them to be equivalent, but then, they would say that. Theres bugger all price difference. Strangely, Elvstrom want to make me a sail that’s too big, and North want to make it too small. Easily rectified, I hoisted my tape measure up the luff yesterday. The pentex main doesn’t fit well either, Mr Batt made that one a tad small. It sets very badly, but that’s most probably just that it’s knackered. It’s quite a lot of grunt on the winch to get the leech in to where it should be to beat effectively, I feel the old jib just wasn’t up to it. It’s not seem a lot of hard use til this summer.

Well worth saying that there are multiple flavours of 3Di, in terms of the material mix.
Assuming that you'd want the endurance 3Di (with extra external protection) then there are 2 in the multihull section of North website.
3Di ENDURANCE - Performance Ocean Sails | North Sails

In the Raw, there are 6
3Di RAW - Composite Molded Racing Sails | North Sails

Worth saying that for our sort of racing we're playing at the lower end of that scale, 760 or 360 depending on the sail.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Some questions for the salesmen then. North have another advantage, they’d like to supply X sails too. Currently that’s Sanders, who has come back with a bang after years in the doldrums. Hmmm.

 

[mrming]

As far as I’m aware there is no equivalent tech to North 3Di from any competing loft. There are other sail cloths / construction methods that are just as fast when they’re in good condition (see Doyle equipped boats winning plenty of events), but there aren’t any that last as long.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

That would be great, if North responded to calls and emails. Sadly they have not, you’d think that 5 grand would be worthwhile. I guess if I’m that unimportant, I am better off elsewhere.

 

[flaming]

That would be great, if North responded to calls and emails. Sadly they have not, you’d think that 5 grand would be worthwhile. I guess if I’m that unimportant, I am better off elsewhere.

If you want a contact that will definitely reply, pm me.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

If you want a contact that will definitely reply, pm me.

Missed the September discount, so ordered elsewhere. I just thought better of them. I’ll be needing a main too in a year or so.