Is it sunset for my red sails

pcatterall

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 Aug 2004
Messages
5,507
Location
Home East Lancashire boat Spain
Visit site
Only spoken to Crusader at this time but they say if I want red for my new main then my choice is limited. They can only offer a Dacron which is lighter than they would recommend but 'could be OK' !

All our other sails are red but do the panel think that in order to maintain choice and keep down costs we should start to move over to white?
 
It depends on the type of sailing you do and the style of your boat that you wish to maintain. If she is going to be sailed a lot then the light material will not last and you have wasted your money. If you sail infrequently and in low strength winds then you can get away with it. If there is no style reason for the red, go for the more robust choice of material in white.
 
Try another sailmaker. Sounds like Crusader are just offering what they have in stock

(For a masterpiece of sailmaking, go to North Sea Sails in Tollesbury. )



Good old Jeckells found red for my genoa

KeepTurningLeft-Oban-to-Plockton.Still047.jpg
 
buy the white ones, and over the winter "cutch" them. A mixture of tallow, Stockholm tar, linseed oil, cod liver oil, and any liquid that has been sitting in the bosun's locker for so long that the label has fallen off.

In addition to looking like a fisherman from the 19th C, you will find other boats will be able to navigate in relation to you by smell alone. I look forward to an amendment to Racing rules: " Where a windward boat is being overtaken by a faster boat to leeward, and the leeward boat calls "Pongo ", the windward boat shall tack to clear the leeward boat's air."
 
Only spoken to Crusader at this time but they say if I want red for my new main then my choice is limited. They can only offer a Dacron which is lighter than they would recommend but 'could be OK' !

All our other sails are red but do the panel think that in order to maintain choice and keep down costs we should start to move over to white?

When I asked Crusader for a quote they were very snooty indeed about my request for red ("You mean 'tan', Sir") sails. I have just ordered a mainsail in whatever the damn colour is called from Nicolson Hughes, who will be making it in - from memory - cloth from Contender.
 
I sail an Enterprise. I've not dropped a stick overboard since I fitted something like http://www.sailenterprise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Enterprise-Flyaway-Poles.pdf. Mine, I have to insist, is the B&Q version: it rusts but costs a tiny fraction of what this would have cost. That may explain why I have some expertise in looking at the transoms of other Ents as they disappear into the middle (or far) distance.
 
Top