Replacement sails choice - Preveza Greece

whiteoaks7

whiteoaks7

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South Wales, UK
www.seasolutions.co.uk
I have three quotes for a suit of sails for the Eclipse which are pretty much tied on price. This means the discriminator is going to be quality and service. The three contenders are Sioux Sails in Nidri, DL and Giatras in Gouvia, Corfu. So any good/ critical comments would help me decide, please speak freely, no-one is watching :-)
 
whiteoaks7 said:
I have three quotes for a suit of sails for the Eclipse which are pretty much tied on price. This means the discriminator is going to be quality and service. The three contenders are Sioux Sails in Nidri, DL and Giatras in Gouvia, Corfu. So any good/ critical comments would help me decide, please speak freely, no-one is watching :-)
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I can give you no advice about the sailmakers you mention.
However, two years ago I started to investigate having a new main for my boat.
I contacted the major sailmakers in Greece - all referred me to their local agent - as you say there is nothing to choose on price from the returned quotes, because Greeks know better than to ruin each others' margins.
On farther investigation I found none of the (standard dacron) sails were made in Greece. All were subcontracted to Korean, Taiwanese or Chinese sailmakers.
A fairly common situation in the UK as well.
In the end I had the sail made by someone who does all their own work, in their own, loft in the UK. I was able to upgrade from standard dacron to UHMWP reinforced Vektran, for a very similar price to the Greek quotes, by utilising all my current sail furniture. The sail, during this season has been a delight (if very difficult to pack away). Even the £40 excess baggage charge, in bringing out from UK a 32m2 fully battened main was negated.
So I'd suggest that you rethink your strategy, after doing some really deep research.
PS It did help that I had known the sailmaker, some 35 years ago when I had a boat in Poole.
 
I have used Sioux Sails for very good quality repairs and small items and Sue and Barry are very pleasant to deal with.
I'm sure your sails from them would be fine even if they were made abroad and only finished in Vliho.
Mind you like Charles I tend to have my sails made one at an infrequent time by Crusader in Poole.
 
I cannot advise on those local sailmakers but I would also be costing in UK. This season I have had a new dinghy and battery shipped out from UK by the suppliers, in each case costing £45 to the Dodecanese. I have also shipped out two boxes of equipment myself, using one of the low cost carriers, at something like £40. In every case delivery took less than two weeks. I also carried out a new mainsail stackpack and a large coil of rope as Easyjet excess baggage, £30 return, although I won't be taking them back.
 
charles_reed said:
I can give you no advice about the sailmakers you mention.
However, two years ago I started to investigate having a new main for my boat.
I contacted the major sailmakers in Greece - all referred me to their local agent - as you say there is nothing to choose on price from the returned quotes, because Greeks know better than to ruin each others' margins.
On farther investigation I found none of the (standard dacron) sails were made in Greece. All were subcontracted to Korean, Taiwanese or Chinese sailmakers.
A fairly common situation in the UK as well.
In the end I had the sail made by someone who does all their own work, in their own, loft in the UK. I was able to upgrade from standard dacron to UHMWP reinforced Vektran, for a very similar price to the Greek quotes, by utilising all my current sail furniture. The sail, during this season has been a delight (if very difficult to pack away). Even the £40 excess baggage charge, in bringing out from UK a 32m2 fully battened main was negated.
So I'd suggest that you rethink your strategy, after doing some really deep research.
PS It did help that I had known the sailmaker, some 35 years ago when I had a boat in Poole.
Click to expand...

Although probably of no use in the present situation there is a nautical "dépôt-vente" near Lorient where all sorts of bargains can be had.

http://accastimer.blogspot.fr/searc...-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00+01:00&max-results=43

A few years ago I bought a new Tasker mainsail which only needed 9" taken off the top of the luff. It cost €250 for 31' boat.
 
tri39 said:
I have used Sioux Sails for very good quality repairs and small items and Sue and Barry are very pleasant to deal with.
I'm sure your sails from them would be fine even if they were made abroad and only finished in Vliho.
Mind you like Charles I tend to have my sails made one at an infrequent time by Crusader in Poole.
Click to expand...

I'd usually use local sailmakers for repairs - nearly always done in their own loft and usually quite well. I've used 2 in Greece (none near Preveza) one in Croatia and one in Italy and never had a reason to complain. Making a new set is different - the cutting code is sent out on the internet, local sailcloth is used, and the sails are cut by CAM, then finished by hand in a ountry where seamstress rates are rock bottom..
Yes, I've known Paul since 1979. My last set of sails were made in 2002 by Sobstad - Jeremy warned me that he could do cheap or good but not both. So I ended up resewing most of the slug eyes in. But the price was 50% of Crusaders price for the same sail.
I think you'll find that many of the girls round Paul's loft are Polish.
UV is the big killer in the Med, dacron still has the best resistance, but the filling they have to use... falls out after 3 years and then you lose your drive.
 
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Try J Sails in Preveza. Once you go in the basement of is very unassuming shop you will see is state of the art computer aided cutting table. Very impressive.
 
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