New Sails Make a Huge Difference

Most of us try to make the sails on our cruising boats last as long as possible. New sails are expensive and most of us are not racing our boats so perfect sail shape is not deemed all that critical. After all, as the saying goes, gentlemen and gentlewomen don’t sail to windward. But, having bought news sets of sails several times over my cruising career, I beg to differ. New sails can make a real difference, both in sailing performance and in safety. Our last boat came with very tired Dacron sails that were blown out, baggy and impossible to trim properly. So, we made the decision to replace them with high quality Dacron from our friends at Mack Sails. Our Jeanneau 45.2 gained a half a knot of average boat speed, sailed five degrees closer to the wind, heeled less and made less leeway. After more than 15,000 offshore miles, three seasons in the tropics and two full gales at sea, the sails were still fine. We had an opportunity to work with Quantum sails, so we ordered a new laminated, membrane Fusion genoa. We went down to 120 percent from 130 yet the new sail worked amazingly well, adding another half to a knot of boat speed and again five degrees of better windward performance. In the end, we do sail to windward, and on rare occasions have to claw off a lee shore, and new sails make doing so more efficient, safer and more fun. If I were in the market for new sails today, I think I would opt for quality (meaning longevity of sail shape) over low cost and would probably go with a Dacron mainsail and a laminated, high-tech cruising headsail.
If you would like to share your thoughts on and experiences with new cruising sails in next week’s Cruising Compass, email me at george@bwsailing.com.