Time for a new sail?

[jwilson]

My old French mainsail of uncertain origin kind of "hinges" at the end of the battens as you can see in picture (where it's reefed) I can suffer fairly vicious weather helm in strong gusts and am sure this is a contributor ...
Is it time for a new sail .. recut ... not bother?

It looks a bit full, and certainly a bit tired, but it's not that bad as a cruising sail. You don't say what boat - on a modern broad-stern production cruiser the hullform is what makes the boat round up into wind when heeled too much. It can do so without producing much of what I'd call 'weather helm' - ie pressure against the tiller or wheel.

 

[jonathanhsm]

Many thanks all again - yes they are grp battens very thick and they are stiff as breadboards- so I will change or sand carefully. And the leech line actually had three adjustment points all the way up the leech and all appear to to be pulled too tight, which might account for the "hook".

I flew it today briefly on the mooring without battens and it didn't seem to crease at the end of the batten pocket.

At the moment the sail is in the bath (!) having a rinse, or at least the foot is. I'll definitely be keeping it with some new flexi battens. Apart from being grubby and a bit blown it seems fairly together.

The boat by the way is a Victorian 28 :might be the only one in the UK. It's the "baby sister" of the Elizabethan 29 designed by Kim Holman in the 1960s and built like the proverbial brick xxxxhouse in France.