Setting the record straight.

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Northseaventure

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Sailmakers, There a funny lot. but now after completing my 5th curcumnavigation of our planet i feel i should share a few truths. For cruising there are alot of choices. one of the being chinese. DO NOT DO IT! it will be a waste of money. after paying for delivery its only just cheaper than uk and you are definatly getting an inferior product not made by sailmakers, made on a factory line. Dont go to the big guys like North Or Quantum, they put all there effort into the racing sails(very nice racing sails) and they definatly fall behind in the cruising market. in my opinion i have found 5 first class sailmakers in the uk. all small and all care about what they put out there.

1: JKA Sailmakers Ltd South Beach Chapel Pwllheli Gwynedd LL53 5AP
2: SKB Sails Limited, The Sail Loft, Commercial Road, Penryn, Cornwall
TR10 8AG
3: Goacher Sails Ltd, Lowside, Bowness-on-Windermere ,Windermere, Cumbria, LA23 3DH
4: Suffolk Sails, 9 Tidemill Way, Woodbridge, Suffolk. IP12 1BY
5: Westaway Sails, The Sail Loft, Erme Bridge, Ivybridge, Devon PL21 9DU


These guys will all bend over backwards for you to see there gear on your boat doing what you want it to. customer service is second to none.



Chinses Rant Over
 
I would absolutely agree re.Westaway Sails, Ivybridge nr Plymouth; not the cheapest ( but a long way from most expensive ) but I have tried a lot, racing and cruising, and I don't go anywhere else.

Friendly, knowledgable and excellent value in the true sense.

I am not in any way related and sadly do not get a commission !
 
I don't entirely agree about the 'big guys'. My sails are Hood Vectran, or Vektron as they are now. Their rep measured the boat, fitted the sails and they provided good after-sales service. The sails have been heavily used, are ten years old and remain in good shape and condition.
 
Seajet said:
I would absolutely agree re.Westaway Sails, Ivybridge nr Plymouth; not the cheapest ( but a long way from most expensive ) but I have tried a lot, racing and cruising, and I don't go anywhere else.

Friendly, knowledgable and excellent value in the true sense.

I am not in any way related and sadly do not get a commission !
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+ 1 on Westaways.
 
Northseventure, welcome to the forum. I chose to go to a small local sailmaker when I bought new sails and paid little more than Chinese money. The deals are there to be had if you look. What is more, if the local sailmakers are lost through people buying 'on the cheap', then when you need a local bloke to do a repair or alteration, people should not be surprised to find they've stop trading.
 
galadriel said:
Northseventure, welcome to the forum. I chose to go to a small local sailmaker when I bought new sails and paid little more than Chinese money. The deals are there to be had if you look. What is more, if the local sailmakers are lost through people buying 'on the cheap', then when you need a local bloke to do a repair or alteration, people should not be surprised to find they've stop trading.
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well said, our local sailmaker (suffolk sails) has perfected an exasperated look when brand new far east sails go to him for repair as it is easier and cheaper than sending them back.
 
capetown said:
Just as I'd decided to use Crusader, we get a post like this.

I'm only a Solent boy, but there you go.
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Crusader is our local sailmaker and have made 4 full suits of sails for me over 3 different boats. They design cut and manufacture in house and their sails are excellent. They made sails for several famous round the world boats even for the recent reincarnation of Gypsy Moth IV. The Dimension Polyant Hydranet woven Dacron with an inbuilt woven Spectra/Dyneema mesh we had them make our last sails (41ft cruiser/racer) from were highly recommended by feedback from Crusader customers with them on their boats on RTW cruises.

Our last boat came with expensive North sails, yet we threw the laminate genoa away at 6 years old and the Dacron mainsail a year later. By contrast the Crusader Hydranet genoa was as good after 9 years and the Hydranet main after 8 years as on day one. We sailed nearly 20,000 miles on that boat in all weathers with those Crusader sails and when sold last December the new owner was delighted with them.
 
capetown said:
Just as I'd decided to use Crusader, we get a post like this.

I'm only a Solent boy, but there you go.
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You won't regret Crusader, I don't.

I sailed up to Scotland this year, and just came back from a weekend when it was blowing 40 knots...we did 1600 this season and our sails still look as fresh as the day they went on. Great service, great product, great people

I thought the post was a bit unfair TBH as the OP can't have tested all sailmakers, so cannot IMHO pass judgement on every sail maker in the UK and only give a list of 5. But hey ho that's the nature of the forum

BTW It doesn't matter where you sail, if you going to Crusader, they'll make a good set of sails for you.
 
Snooks, the OP was comparing local UK sail makers he knows, he cannot comment on those he has no knowledge of. He was though, if I understand correctly, comparing the poor quality (in his experience) of Chinese sails when compared to those made in the UK.

I suspect every UK sail maker will have their own dedicated followers.
 
capetown said:
Just as I'd decided to use Crusader, we get a post like this.
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I was a bit confused by this comment. Crusader don't supply Chinese-made sails do they?

I've had a good quote for a main from them and may well go ahead in view of other comments I've had about their sails
 
imho you get what you pay for, local sailmakers don't tend to get access to the cheaper cloths massed produced in china for larger lofts. So they tend to use better cloths as they don't have the high turnover of sails to disappoint.:)
 
Lakesailor said:
I was a bit confused by this comment. Crusader don't supply Chinese-made sails do they?

I've had a good quote for a main from them and may well go ahead in view of other comments I've had about their sails
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Do you keep your boat on the lakes ( a guess from your ID)? have you talked to Steve Goacher, has an excellent reputation for quality sails.;)
 
Crusader seem to cut a few corners IMHO. Mayb not for weekend sailing but definatley on the genoa i used once. Definatley seemed to be built light. I havent used all sailmakers but i would recommend nearly every loft in the uk over the chinese. The small lofts put in the effort.
 
Robin said:
Our last boat came with expensive North sails, yet we threw the laminate genoa away at 6 years old and the Dacron mainsail a year later. By contrast the Crusader Hydranet genoa was as good after 9 years and the Hydranet main after 8 years as on day one. We sailed nearly 20,000 miles on that boat in all weathers with those Crusader sails and when sold last December the new owner was delighted with them.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but by maths that North sail must have been built at least 15 years ago, probably more?

That would make it a pretty early example of a cruising laminate, I suspect that the increase in life is more to do with the advances in technology across the board, rather than one particular sailmaker's laminate being especially bad.

For example, the first generation of laminate racing sails were thought to last about a season. Whereas now they are thought to be good for at least 3 seasons. I would imagine that the cruising laminates have probably enjoyed a similar increase in life.
 
Still being fairly new to the game I have only used a local sailmaker, for 2 sails dodgers and sprayhood, dont think you can beat discussing what you want face to face with someone, tore my leech line out of the sail last month, collected, repaired and delivered in 3 days :)
Well done Wilkinson's :) :)
 
Northseaventure said:
Crusader seem to cut a few corners IMHO. Mayb not for weekend sailing but definatley on the genoa i used once. Definatley seemed to be built light. I havent used all sailmakers but i would recommend nearly every loft in the uk over the chinese. The small lofts put in the effort.
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That's you're opinion and view, but did you commission the sail you are commenting on?

If you didn't, do you know what the original purchaser (of the sail) asked for?
i.e. Did they have the sail made to a price? Were they only going to be sailing in the Solent on weekends during the summer? Or were they going to sail around the world?

IMHO it's dangerous territory commenting on sails that you don't know the background behind and it's unfair to comment on the build quality of a sailmaker unless you have all the facts.

If the owner of the sail you experienced was only a weekend sailor, and had expressed that to the sailmaker, then it's pretty reasonable for the sailmaker to quote and consequently make a light weight sail for them.

Both my main and genoa are triple stitched radial hydranet "built light" would not be a phrase I would ever use to describe them :)
 
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