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rhinorhino

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I am looking to replace the sails on my HR36, nothing fancy just Dacron cruising sails, a jib and a main.
I am struck by the variation in prices (from £2,900 to £6,000 so far).
Does the panel have any recommendations and/or horror stories?
Thanks
 
Please try and use a UK sailmaker, you dont know when you might need one for a repair.

My new sails last year were made by Arun, in Bosham and I'm very pleased.
 
galadriel said:
Please try and use a UK sailmaker, you dont know when you might need one for a repair.

My new sails last year were made by Arun, in Bosham and I'm very pleased.
Click to expand...


British made sails from a British loft? Crusader.... 2700 quid


For my Jeanneau SO35.....

I have just gone with Dolphin in Harwich becuase of the personalised measurement and post delivery setting service. Will let you know. 3200 quid

Quantum offered similar but messed the quote up a bit. 3200 quid.

North gave good sales pitch but expensive 4800 quid.

Didnt bother any further this round.
 
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rhinorhino said:
I am looking to replace the sails on my HR36, nothing fancy just Dacron cruising sails, a jib and a main.
I am struck by the variation in prices (from £2,900 to £6,000 so far).
Does the panel have any recommendations and/or horror stories?
Thanks
Click to expand...
I bought new sails for a rival 32 (still not used them yet so have no idea as to how good they are)
You might have a better idea of what you want but i have never bought new sails and wanted the best i could afford.

I phoned every manufacture of sails in the uk and the biggest problem your going to have is you can not compare one sail to another.
Absolutely everyone says the fabric is the best.
No two companies offer the same fabric and if its very similar it is a different weight.

One company will offer fully battened sails another will offer 3/4 battens and others will say the standard battens will be best for that boat and each will give you a very plausible reason why the other is wrong.

I thought i would enjoy buying new sails but in the end it was just a hassle.
In the end i asked on here and was recommended Sanders sails.

I phoned them and he spoke a lot of sense. They did what they said for how much they said and it was ready when they said it would be
Not the cheapest but not the most expensive either (£2400)


Rob
 
rhinorhino said:
I am looking to replace the sails on my HR36, nothing fancy just Dacron cruising sails, a jib and a main.
I am struck by the variation in prices (from £2,900 to £6,000 so far).
Does the panel have any recommendations and/or horror stories?
Thanks
Click to expand...

You need to compare like with like. Most sailmakers quote for a range depending on your requirements. Many like Crusader and Kemps have information on different materials and cuts on their websites to help you understand the differences. A local sailmaker particularly if he does most of the work in house is more likely to give you personalised advice and service.
 
1. Buy locally so that you get good service a) measuring the boat before they are made b) after sales service to check that everything fits correctly, is sheeted in the right place and can be adjused etc.
2. Spend your money on good quality cloth: don't go for the cheapest way to fill the gap twixt mast and boom
3. after discussing with a few sailmakers, establish the spec that you want, and get them to quote against that spec

e.g.
Mainsail: Hydranet cloth, 3 reefs, 5 full length battens, 2x camber stripes, leech tell tales, leech line to be adjusted from the sail luff, loose footed Tri-radial cut etc.......

I would not go for "just dacron cruising sails" as you will be disappointed with them after a couple of years and when it is really blowing and you need to control the boat, they will stretch and distort pushing you sideways instead of giving you drive.
There are some great new cloths that look/feel like dacron but are woven using spectra or other "clever" fibres, are less prone to UV damage and give better performance and sail life without the expense of laminate sails. Have a good read of sail makers websites to mug up on the terminology and then phone around your local lofts.
 
>biggest problem your going to have is you can not compare one sail to another.

Get a good magnifying glass and a bright light. Dacron fibre is expensive, glue is cheap, more fibre is less stretch longer life. Now light the fabric from below and use the magnifying glass to 'count' the threads. Actually you don't need to count precisely you can see the differences. Then you can lay out the samples in increasing thread order. You will find that many use exactly the same cloth whatever they say.

Then look at what they are offering, for example: triple stitching (best for cruising sails); mainsail leach line led back to mast etc.

When we went through that process Hood had the best quality material but was the most expensive - they did deal
 
I'll second purplerobbie. Bought new suite over the past two years and have not enjoyed the experience.

Why? As gardenshed says, there are a load of "things to think about that to be honest I had no idea about. gardenshed's list is a good one, I would say you need to specify for the main:
- sail numbers and their colour;
- number of reefing points and crinkles along the "foot"
- draft marks?
- tell tails, how many and where?
- sail bag (a laundret bag or something more suitable?
- foot and leech lines, and if they are tied off or on a cam cleat, and velcro cover for this?
- bi or triradial cut?

Headsail:
- again sail numbers and their colour;
- if furling, colour of UV strip;
- if furling do you wnat markers for other sizes, eg if ordering a No1, do you want markers on the sail indicating No 2 and No3. (very worth having in my view as it helpds consistence in car position etc.)
- tell tails and do you want a window with any of them?
- sail bag as above;
-foot and leach lines as above;
-bi or triradial cut.

I'm sure I have missed soemthing out. I certainly did when I ordered mine and had to go back a couple of times to get what I wanted! My fault realy for thinking ordering sails was as easy as "I would like a new No1 please!"

As another comparision I went for triradial crusing laminate headsails and dacron bi main (in mast furling so not much to be gain performace wise here.)

Wrt buying british, whilst your rep might be local a lot are now manufactured in china, with the sail companies not having lofts here anymore. (Apparently the Doyle and North lofts are right next to each other in China)

Hope that helps!
 
We purchased new sails for our HR 36 from Peter Sanders, Sanders Sails in Lymington. Excellent set of sails and service to match.
Additional bonus is that he offers a substantial discount for HR Owners Association members, easily pays off the annual membership fee. Also receive other useful discounts as membership benefit.
 
Definitely another vote for Pete Sanders at Lymington. Has just made us a new sail for our HR39. Great service, delivered to the door (Devon), and made in the UK!!!
 
Not knowing where you are based does not help recommend local lofts.
The Noble insurance website has a utility on it to find lofts near you.
Around here I can recommend Flew sails as a small independent.
Also Crusader made me a pretty good roller genoa.
Consider getting a radial clew or biradial main, it may hold its shape better and be better value over ten years than a cheaper simple cross-cut.
Kemps gave good service but I only ever bought a chute from them.
 
I was not that long ago there was an article in one of the magazines about a significant ptoportion of all sails sold by UK lofts actually being made to a lesser of greater extend in China. Of course buying locally will bring you the benefits of a local supplier, but I fear that these days it does not mean your sail will actually be assembled locally. From what I remeber some lofts were more open about their use of Chinese facilities than others. Mind you one of the key points in the article was the quality control and materials were at least as good as those from the UK.
 
Try getting a quote from HR Parts in Ellos for an Elvestom (?) replacement. At this time of year or a little later there are sometimes some real bargins - unfortunately not always! At least you can be sure of the fit and quality if the price is right.
Fair winds.
 
2nd vote for Elvestrom (Did look at most of the above mentioned Uk guys) - They have uk op & my new genoa is as pleasurable to own as the original which lasted well for 10 yrs -
I am sure they were more than might have spent but i would think just the thing for HR.
 
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