Cruising mainsail - soft or fully battened, Dacron or laminate ?

[homa]

My mainsail is "irrepairable" according to 2 local sailmakers.
I was expecting same, but had hoped for at least another seasons use. I Have decided to bite the bullet and order a new main before Christmas to take account of the seasonal discounts on offer.

Now what does the panel recommend.....

I want a premium cruising sail (I will not be racing), which I expect to last a good number of years.

I have never sailed with a fully battened sail on a yacht, though have windsurfed for many years with and without fully battened sails and I can appreciate the difference there.

What are the pro's cons of fully battened against soft and should I go for the Dacron or push the budget and go for one of these new Cruising laminate sails that the sail makers are enthusing about ?

Tx for reading this

Homa

 

[sailorman]

HI
i have a fully battened dracon from GO Sails ( Gowen / Ocean ) 5 seasons old still very good sets a dream , with Frederickson cars /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif to all battens + head board.
GO make very good sails (now owned by dolphin)
phone & talk to Doug Seaton

my genoa is a laminated sail also very good particually in high wind spds , we dont need to reef untill a steady 22 kts apparent /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

cheers
roger

all sails by GO taken about 10 weeks ago /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Sans Bateau]

I agree with sailorman, our boat and our last one has fully battened main. We have Kemp cars, the whole rig drops neatly into a sail bag when stored. I think you will find that the battens will help the sail to last longer, ours is now 12 years old, sets well and shows no sign of wear. The only down side is that fully battened mains are more difficult to de-power.

 

[Talbot]

Cruising laminate is a better sail than dacron up to a pont in time , then the dacron wears longer.

Have you considered a sail made using spectra reinforcement in the dacron (e.g. Hydranet) which will give beter performance than the standard dacron, and greater longevity.

 

[charles_reed]

Fully battened, but try to get them as light as possible and with as aggressive a roach as you can (you can always reduce area by reefing but it's a pig when in light airs trying to get more area).

I'll repeat my sailmaker's advice (and they started the laminate sails' fad):- "Great for racing and if you replace them every 3 years, but a waste of your money and time for cruising..."

So go for crosscut dacron.

You'll get about 10% more drive than from conventional sails and about 80% of the heeling force.
Fully battened sails are cut much flatter then conventional and need to sailed be freer, you might well consider an extra reef point as well as a loose foot.
To improve handling lazyjacks and a sailbag are desirable.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I have been really pleased with my ¾ batten main from kemps most of the joy from a full sail without the added extra costs of tracks and pack aways.

Bit cheaper too.

 

[charles_reed]

Sure you don\'t mean

Rutgerson. Good cars but pricey.

Better value for money are Bainbridge Aquabatten. Their Oilite slides are particularly good.

On the other hand Rutgerson recently introduced a dinky little reefing pennant eye with a built-in roller - far less frictional loss than your traditional pressed eye. Great for single-line reefing.

 

[sailorman]

we sail @ 27 deg apparent in winds above 12 kts.
the sail is very full in light airs & will flatten to a board in high winds if req.
1/ droopy boom / flattener cringle + out-haul
2/ luff cunningham
3/ 3 reef points
4/ Frederickson cars on batten ends + slides intermediate
5/ lazy jacks - no bag on boom
6/ wind tell tales + draught strips

 

[Koeketiene]

For mainsail I would choose the following/
1. fully battened
2. dacron

Laminate for a main is OTT if you're just cruising, plus dacron will last you longer (AND it's cheaper).

 

[mobeydick]

One thing nobody has mentioned - weight. On a larger boat (or more specificaly mainsail) they can be very heavy to raise: hence electric winches and other complications

 

[michael_w]

I bought new furling genoa and mainsail for my 33' . The sails did an Atlantic circuit of about 19,000 miles.

Both are made from Bainbridge's cruising laminate. The shape is still perfect. The extra cost over dacron? About £ 100.

Dacron will remain a triangle for ever, but what shape!

 

[ex-Gladys]

Another for the FB dacron route. AMber has a 2000 Wilkinson FB main which really does still look and feel new. GL's FB main is (ahem) a little older (1986), but surprisingly serviceable and not a candidate for renewal for a number fo years.

 

[brianhumber]

Charles am right behind you, but I kept my 3/4 battens as I was advised it was expensive to fit the full batten cars on my mast.
Sail still wizzes up and down but the best 'handling' investment has been single line reefing. Wife now does not have to move, as I put the autohelm on and can do the 1st and 2nd reefs myself without needing assistance.

 

[Krusty]

It depends on the kind of cruising you want. I do not race, but do enjoy good performance sailing short-handed in all weathers: I have been more than satisfied with a Dacron 'soft' main (with top batten full length) with a deep third reef; made by Owen Sails, Benderloch, Argyll. Standard time for dropping one reef in is 30 seconds; straight down to 2nd reef, 40 seconds; and even for the deep third there is no need to remove slides and it takes only a minute: very useful when a vicious line-squall races in! This season a 20 week cruise to arctic Norway brought that sail's usage to 40,000 miles and it is still in very good shape. If you want details, PM me.

 

[Sheerline]

Dacron and fully battened in my view. Dacron is a fantastic material - improved over decades. I've had all sorts; mylar films over dacron scrims, Pentex, even a liquid polymer sail once (mmm, didn't work). And the 'slightly better' more expensive, higher tech stuff has often disappointed. Dacron is terrific for a long-lasting cruising main. And full-length battens help maintain shape and structure. Good luck.

 

[absit_omen]

Weight. Our boat is 46ft steel. We have dacron fully battened with Harken Battcars. I need to winch up the last third. However, comes down like a sack of spuds when the clutch is released. Straight into the lazybag and the main effort then is to zip her up!

 

[alahol2]

We had a full batten main on our 32 foot Iroquois for several years but were advised by the sailmaker (sadly no longer in business) that expensive batten cars were a waste of money. He fitted slides that were about 3 times longer than normal which had a sort of 'outer shoulder' that ran on the outside of the luff groove. They worked perfectly well with no binding either raising or lowering the sail. They also saved a considerable amount of cash.

 

[TonyMS]

We have fully-batterned dacron, but radial cut. The radial cut costs a bit more, but not as much as laminate, and allows the sail to keep its shape for longer.

Seemed a good compromise for fast cruising.

Before that we had laminated sails. Set fine for 3 years then fell apart like paper.

 

[SimonMackenzie]

There are also many different qualities of Dacron (at different prices). Certainly sailmakers will tell you that you get what you pay for and that the more expensive Dacrons have tighter weaves and hold their shape better.

 

[homa]

Yep, and that was going to be my next post...
It looks like the Dacron and fully battened has the majority vote. that's the easy part done. Now how do I decide on a sail maker ?