New sail quote - reasonable.

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Joker

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I have a roller reefing genoa which is not in bad condition, but I asked the people valeting it to quote for new one. 20 sq m. Quote: £1150 +VAT.
Does this sound reasonable to you?
 
Why don't you get quotes from a couple of other sailmakers for the same spec? Difficult to comment without knowing the spec.
 
jimi said:
What cloth?
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Dacron - with the comment that:

"But don't make the mistake of assuming that all Dacron sails are the same. The difference is in the construction methods and detailing. The reason ***** Dacron sails may be more expensive, is that the sailmaker puts more into a sail for your enjoyment and performance."
 
Try Jeckells, i've always found them to be very reasonable....no connection, just a satisfied customer

And don't forget there's a show coming up in January if you're after a deal!
 
Joker said:
Dacron - with the comment that:

"But don't make the mistake of assuming that all Dacron sails are the same. The difference is in the construction methods and detailing. The reason ***** Dacron sails may be more expensive, is that the sailmaker puts more into a sail for your enjoyment and performance."
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I'm getting a quote under twice that size for a sail twice that size in marblehead which I think is an OK quote.
Bearing mind its a quality heavier cloth, you might be better looking around for another quote.
 
2 years ago hyde made my jib for 31 ft boat for under £700
Buy this time of year for good discounts
They came & measured & fitted
I had marblehead racing
Excellent sail made by a british company. Albeit abroad but in their own loft not in someone elses chinese loft
 
Definitely sounds on the high side for a quote.
Worth shopping around and making sure you are comparing 'like for like' e.g. how is the sail cut, what material, any special features like luff padding etc.
 
There are four types of cloth to consider:
* Bog standard polyester. Tends to stretch and then last till the stitching falls apart
* Racing laminate - Best for sailing, worst for long life, needs care, tend to rot and explode. Don't consider for raggid arse cruising.
* Premium polyester with a fancy name, depending on who made it. Any one will do, see Bog standard polyester.
* Cruising laminate, new and expensive. May end up like Racing laminate above.

There is also the panel layout of the sail:
* Cross cut. Cheapest. the cheapskates sail of choice.
* Radial cut. Dearest. Sometimes seen on the Solent. Not needed.

All the rest is affectation. Tho it is reasonable to expect to pay a bit more for a UK made sail, and for bloke to make the sail for you alone, and to be able to speak to him about it. Many sails are like an old Burtons Tailor Made Suit - lot of measurements taken in the front of the shop, but everyone gets the same suit out of the back.

I recently had a main made in Premium Cloth, in local loft. It was c £1300. I asked for a genoa quote (c23 sq m ish, crosscut) to the same standard, he said "about the same".

I also asked on the boat's website forum for a price comparison (genoa, as a bove) and these ranged from under £1000 (Bog standard polyester) to over £2000 ( Hydranet, fancy crusiing laminate).
 
Joker said:
I have a roller reefing genoa which is not in bad condition, but I asked the people valeting it to quote for new one. 20 sq m. Quote: £1150 +VAT. Does this sound reasonable to you?
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Sounds expensive, a 28m sq (140%) cross cut Genoa has just cost us £1300. However, it was a nightmare trying to compare like for like. I think if you choose one of the UK sailmakers that are regularly recommended on here like Arun / Crusader / Jekells / Kemps, they will make you a really good sail and offer you either a basic design or some extra features. The difficult bit was trying to put the various sail fabrics into some sort of quality order.

Building on Doug's synopsis I was offered the following bog standard cloths like Bainbridge Premium Plus or Contender Supercruise. Premium Plus has a square pattern with a extra strong rip stop thread every cm giving a square pattern but its a budget fabric, price £1000. Norths budget fabric is Nordac 4800 and priced at £1200. Our existing Genoa was Supercruise 6.9 oz, with 11 years of light use stretched and the UV strip needs replacing. Perhaps this was all we could have asked of it.

Next up were Premium cloths like Challenge Marblehead and Dimension Polyant C-Breeze at £1300. Also offered Dimension Polyant Square was about £1500, this has much smaller square pattern about every 5mm and was an interesting option.

Finally top of the range were Norths Radian £1900, Vectron £2000 and HydraNet £2200. These are tri radial cut sails and the Radian was very tempting but all three over the top for us.

Final decision was a cross cut Dimension Polyant C-Breeze from Kemps (called Portland Premium) using in their performance cruise style. Seemed a sensible choice for a cruising Genoa requiring a low aspect balanced cloth. Kemps Gosport yard is just around the corner from us so was an influence in the final choice. Matt was very helpful and willing to take some time on a wet Wednesday afternoon to look over the existing Genoa and a second smaller North jib we also carry. Result the smaller North jib stays on board for windy trips and the existing Genoa is off to e-bay in the spring.

Couple of links worth reading, the first is an article from Mack Sails in the US, however, it is now dated:

http://www.macksails.com/sailclth.htm

Also an article from Sanders Sails in Lymington about how they chose which cloths to use:

http://www.sanders-sails.co.uk/materials.htm


Pete
 
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Daydream believer said:
I had a full suit of Kemp sails for my boat once. Poor sails & really bad aftersales support. Would not touch with a barge pole. The response was next to abusive
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Interesting. We got a new main from Kemp last year. One of the big factors was that, at the same time, Z-Spars were making us a new boom. The two companies seemed to work well together and I was spared any concerns over how the sail and boom would match. So, in summary, I think I got a good sail at a god price, and good service.

I'll also mention Quay sails who made our genoa two years ago, would very happily deal with them again.
 
Crusader sails did us an excellent set of sails a couple of years back. They were the cheapest quote by a fair margin of the 8 or so quotes I got. One reason was they had a winter deal running - we ordered about this time of year so perhaps they'll have an offer running now. The cost of the main and genoa were about the same - hardly surprising as both are about 34 sq m.

The material was their cruising premium dacron; we explained what we planned to use the sails for, they quoted for standard and premium cruising fabrics. They explained that the premium cloth was likely to last somewhat longer than standard so we paid about £300 more for the premium set.
 
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