Laminated sails that never delaminate

[Chanquete]

Hy
I spent the last five years fighting against mold an delamination of my laminated genoa.
Finally the sail died from a complete delamination.
Therefore I recently bought a new genoa with the polyester warp oriented radian sailcloth from North.
I am delighted with its performance.
I recently read a propaganda of Sobstad claiming that its new laminated sails never delaminate.
Any information about this sailcloth?

Saludos

 

[Twister_Ken]

Hy
I spent the last five years fighting against mold an delamination of my laminated genoa.
Finally the sail died from a complete delamination.
Therefore I recently bought a new genoa with the polyester warp oriented radian sailcloth from North.
I am delighted with its performance.
I recently read a propaganda of Sobstad claiming that its new laminated sails never delaminate.
Any information about this sailcloth?

Saludos

No, but another vote for North Radian. Very impressed with mine – now going into their fourth season and a good as new apart from a spot where a seagull bomb landed unnoticed just as the genoa was being furled.

 

[Chanquete]

No, but another vote for North Radian. Very impressed with mine – now going into their fourth season and a good as new apart from a spot where a seagull bomb landed unnoticed just as the genoa was being furled.

Hy Ken
When I touch the radian sailcloth, I see that it is so tightly woven that it feels like some type of film.
The only negative impression is its weight, heavier than laminated sails.

 

[estarzinger]

"laminated sails never delaminate"

This is all about glue and process.

In laminate cloth made in a roller press process as 'roll goods' (eg, which will then be cut and made into tri-radial sails) you can have both relativity strong pressure and temp in the process. In this case, you can easily cure a glue that will not delaminate - or more accurately the film will self-destruct before it delaminates.

If the sail has dyneema/spectra fibers in it, you cannot use as strong heat, because dyneema has a relatively low melting/damage point. This restricts the type of glue cure you can use. Dyneema is also extremely slippery and more difficult to bond. BUT with strong pressure on rollers you can still make a dyneema cloth where the film will self destruct before it delaminates. These sails were 'the choice' for round the world reliability. Some of these sails will wick moisture in thru the dyneema threads and will then mold. That is a different topic/process question.

Now we come to 'string sails' (aka 'load path' sails) - where the cloth is not made as 'roll goods', but rather (like north 3dl, and many others) is made by laying down large pieces of film and then laying down fibers on it to match a load pattern (these pieces are then broad seamed together). In most of these processes you do not have as strong roller pressure nor as high temps. North uses vacuum bag pressure. Some other mfgs use rollers over the panels, but they are not as strong/controlled as in 'rolled goods'. With string sails their has been a very sharp glue trade-off: some MFG's (North) have chosen a very flexible curing glue that also is more prone to delamination ; while others (Quantum) have chosen a more brittle curing glue that is more prone to flex failure but less prone to delamination.

That is some background . . . the OP does not mention which specific Sobstad cloth he is talking about, so its hard to be any more specific.