Why are sails white.

[phanakapan]

I've got a blue sail. Came with the boat. Is dirty, is blue, is used in dirty weather, is called 'Dirty Blue'.

Picture was taken after a bit of heavy weather shredded our roller furling genoa, approaching Tonga.
We used Dirty Blue alone non stop from the Canaries to Cape Verdes, did 5-6 knots downwind very comfortably.
I really like this sail- perversely as the weather has to be pretty horrid for us to rig it!

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Beautiful pic of a lovely boat. Presumably an in-mast furling main and regular furling genoa. Who made the sails and of what material?
Peter

In mast main. Regular genoa. Self tacking jib.
Sail material was Bainbridge Ocean Weave Dacron, nothing special really.
They were made by Channon Sails.

 

[Greenheart]

Fantastic. If I owned her, I'd be permanently out of range of internet. I probably wouldn't have heard of this forum.

My Topper had brightly coloured sails, of course. I eventually regarded it as an unhappy, callow stigma, because all the slicker, faster boats like Lasers, had cool plain white sails...

...except for the enviably exotic, very cool Hobie catamarans with their totally psychedelic sails...

View attachment 37550

When I asked the same question in a thread here last year, most responded by saying that the reflection of sunlight off white sails, isn't bad enough to justify dyeing them darker.