Crinkly laminate sails

[jonjo]

My new cruising laminate main sail arrived 2 days before Christmas via a courier van. Before departing for Christmas I left the sail unrolled down the length of the sitting room.

While inspecting the sail in detail today I was disappointed by the hard creases left in the material. There is a mixture of long crease lines where the sail maker flaked the sail but worse are the random crinkles, these look like parchment paper that was screwed up then ironed flat again.

Is this normal for a laminate sail? Will a few sails in a stiff breeze pull the creases out?

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

Jonjo,

These are par for the course with a laminated sail.... 'fraid they'll never disappear entirely, although longer, less pronounced creases might pull out to a certain extent.... the random crinkles are there for the duration /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[alan]

Jonjo,
My laminate sail arrived in a similar state but after a few uses these creases do disappear (assuming the courier hadn't put really heavy loads on top of the sail and seriously damaged the material - which I doubt). From my experience these laminates do tend to retain the fold marks more than dacron. I don't think you need to unduly worry, but maybe a photo of the worse marks just in case ??

Alan.
Nettuno, Italy.

 

[Trajan]

Hi
Unless you pick them up they all come like that, Hood and North seem the most expert at getting the sails into the smallest packaging possible. Our current main is a Sobstad Platinum Genesis, Lush sail, the creases fall in and out as you use it, (it's hard to get a main sail down with a 45 odd foot luff when its blowing a 7 neatly with no creases, tied to the boom!) - We have a Hood tri-laminate genoas - Which also gets full of creases due to being pulled up and down at the windward marks, sail changes etc, and the tiny small bag that you get with it makes it hard to put away completely neatly - Plus the fact they end up being walked on, stuffed into the aft cabins etc

- The creases from transport are nothing to worry about, after a few years of UV especially with Mylar (SPG!?) it won’t be creasing, it will be cracking! –– the original UK Sails tape drives (See through and crackly) (circa 1998) were good at premature cracking! – Look fantastic on photos mind you!

 

[Trajan]

And...
It will be intresting to see how those Match 35's go...

 

[mirabriani]

Mine is the same but when I remove it from the boat I store it in a long sausage like bag which enables me to rollit up with little or no creases
It usually comes out looking good

Regards Briani