Genoa sailcloth weight

[bobupanddown]

I,m about to order a new genoa for my oceanis 351 but cant make up my mind about what weight of dacron to use. Any suggestions?

 

[Norman_E]

On a bigger boat I was going to have 9 ounce Dacron, but went for a cruising laminate instead. A decent sailmaker will give you good advice on sailcloth type and weight. A UK made sail would have been too heavy at about 35Kg to carry out to my boat, although Crusader sails gave me both good advice and a competetive quote. I guess that a genoa for your boat would be light enough to take out to Italy by air.

 

[boatmike]

Difficult to know without knowing the area and type of sailing you do. It's further complicated by the fact that US and UK weights are different so be careful that you are comparing like for like. Having said that I think a genoa of your general size could be 7 oz UK with highly stressed areas in 9. Also ask the make of dacron cloth and weave density. Some older cloths are low density and heavily resin bonded. Newer ones are denser with less resin and therefore softer. Then you need to decide if cross cut or radial. That's why it's good to compare sailmakers not only on price but quality. There are a number of good sailmakers. Recently I shopped around the boat show for a new mainsail and ended up buying Kemp, but Jeckells, and many others are OK too. North are excellent but expensive... Shop around.

 

[FAITIRA]

[ QUOTE ]
I,m about to order a new genoa for my oceanis 351 but cant make up my mind about what weight of dacron to use. Any suggestions?

[/ QUOTE ]

Just ordered a 9oz UK dacron 130% r/f genny

 

[sailorman]

8 > 8.5oz