Good sailcloth for JR

  • 18 Mar 2016 15:27
    Reply # 3889378 on 1206989
    Another exotic sail material appears on the scene. It will be interesting to see how well   Peregrine's  WeatherMax canvas performs. It seems to tick the boxes about strength, tear resistance, UV resistance and colourfastness, but a question mark remains over how well it will withstand chafe. 
  • 18 Mar 2016 10:44
    Reply # 3888896 on 3887814
    Annie Hill wrote:Arne has just posted the following under another topic.  This looks a very promising fabric.  In fact I remember looking at it myself some time ago, but dismissed it because it doesn't come in purple!
    Challenge 3.8 oz sailcloth comes in purple!

    Might be heavy enough for SibLim, with good sailmaking practice, enough reinforcement at points of stress, a low-stress sailplan that's easy on the cloth?

  • 18 Mar 2016 10:39
    Reply # 3888893 on 3887814
    I guess they [Weathermax types] are over the top for the little sail of Weaverbird, but I anyway think it looks like an interesting material for slightly bigger junk sails.



    Clipper Canvas is a little over the top for little Weaverbird, but the price was right! A very good sailcloth, very suitable for junk sails, at less cost than anything else I could find.
  • 17 Mar 2016 19:46
    Reply # 3887814 on 1206989
    Arne has just posted the following under another topic.  This looks a very promising fabric.  In fact I remember looking at it myself some time ago, but dismissed it because it doesn't come in purple!


    A few days ago, Sebastian Hentschel, the German sail maker, sent me a couple of photos of junks he has made sails for, like this for his Peregrine  (now with black topsides!).

    He uses a woven tarpaulin called Weathermax. It is said to hold the colour as well as acryl, but with the strength of polyester. At 230g/m2 (Weathermax LT) and 270g/m2 (Weathermax 80) these come without coating on any side.

    I guess they are over the top for the little sail of Weaverbird, but I anyway think it looks like an interesting material for slightly bigger junk sails.

    Two links:

    Wethermax 80

    http://www.leesailcovers.com/weathermax80/

    Wethermax source with, with distributors in different countries.

    http://www.safetycomponents.com/
    WeatherMAX/Distributors/index.php?page=GreatBritain

    Cheers, Arne


  • 24 Feb 2016 07:18
    Reply # 3840609 on 1206989
    Deleted user


    Chris Gamble 07862226251 Sent from my iPad

    Annie on way "back" to NZ now after 20 years away. My wife does not like passages but will cruise locally where ever we are.  I do not like living in a house and am addicted to cruising! But my sailing is a compromise. We have a house in London but I never go "home" being a full time live aboard.   She joins me when in port and we tour around thoroughly. So my plans are determined by or rather interrupted by her her visits. I had intended crossing the Atlantic in December ...  then January ... but weather has not always allowed  for the planned easy trip from what is the edge of Biscay. I am looking now for that chance. I have no timetable but would have liked to be back in New Zealand by November this year but have allowed time to stretch, and, as predicted , El Niño is stretching Pacific passage times too. I look at the satellite tracks of friends who have already entered the Pacific have now have no regrets not sticking to a schedule. I have done my share of bad passages, including one hurricane at sea when we overstayed in the Solomon Islands and so sail when chance of comfort is highest for a single hander.   So answer to when will I be back is -  as soon as possible! 

    No timetable!!! One complication though. I have only 5 more days left of my Spanish allowance of 183 days per year  so have to move on quickly and with more weather delays there is a possibility I will not be legal stopping off again in Canaria so I will possibly sail directly for the Verde Islands. 

    Incidentally back to the topic post about cloth. Tyvek seams, laminations and patches using polyurethane sealer or glues are said to be "indestructible" ( see Du Pont engineering guide) and have and an exterior adhesive life of at least 15 years. Before I bought my masts and sails  I had priced out a two flat Tyvek sails triple laminated  top three panels, double next two out of a light cloth with rolled on UV stabilised colour printing ink which is supposed to add to UV life. Cost was £400 for both but I needed to confirm my weight of cloth - so searched high and low for junk sail experience. One sail making guide says using Tyvek with glued seams is as easy as wall papering. One user who has bolt ropes all round including the luff in a track on the main reports  he uses his sails " heavily" then  states and in 10 years has not had any signs of failure.  That is not the same as endorsing the cloth for an ocean passage however. Note it is standard practice to self laminate where the cloth has to withstand stress of high winds when rest is reefed. 

  • 21 Feb 2016 21:05
    Reply # 3835503 on 1206989
    Deleted user

    Polyester cloths, mostly dacron, mylar and various scrim cloths, have been used in the aircraft industry with consistent results. The factors that determine its life are UV and flutter, the latter being what sailors would consider localised, small scale flogging. Flutter causes a breakdown of the resin in dacron and rapidly leads to damage of the fibres. For the same reason a great deal of effort goes into minimising the creasing of the cloth during manufacture and assembling the surfaces. Annual cloth tests are performed using a tool called a Bettsometer, which essentially consists of a blunt needle with a handle that applies calibrated pressure - the cloth's ability to withstand a given needle pressure without puncturing gives a pass/fail result.

    As the test itself is hard on the cloth, most wings have a small square test patch separate from the wing fabric but equally exposed to UV. It might be instructive for those experimenting with new cloths for sails to do something similar. It may help in determining how new cloths age and break down by distinguishing UV from tension stresses.

    For what it's worth, UV in the mid-latitude, ozone-depleted environments of sunny NZ can knock out an aircraft wing in as little as a few thousand hours - pass the sunscreen, and get thee to shade...

  • 21 Feb 2016 19:19
    Reply # 3835423 on 1206989
    When do you plan to be back in NZ, Chris?  It will be great to have another junk to add to the fleet!
  • 21 Feb 2016 19:18
    Reply # 3835407 on 1206989
    All good points, Arne.  I tend to forget how many people approach making a junk sail in fear and trepidation.  I've enjoyed my forays into the gentle art and am looking forward to making my next one. Nice, clean work and not much heavy lifting!

    I am inclined to get the most bang for my buck, so will spend now to save in the long run, but I know more than a few people who hate spending money, even to be better off long term (penny wise and pound foolish) and of course there are always those who can only lay hands on a finite amount at any one time.  I can imagine someone, half way round the world, with sufficient funds to get back home, but insufficient funds for new sails.  (One might say s/he shouldn't have ended up in that situation, but maybe s/he believed the sailmakers' claims of longevity!)  That being so, it's great to test out cheap cloth for emergency sails.  Of course, you will immediately see the flaw in my reasoning: if our sailor has a pointy rig, then there is no chance that s/he'll be making new sails from Tyvek or whatever.  If s/he has a junk rig, the situation is unlikely to arise!

    And, of course, if s/he has the money for a new suit of sails, it would be as cheap to dump the pointy rig and change to junk (making the sail, of course.)

  • 21 Feb 2016 10:46
    Reply # 3835043 on 1206989
    Deleted user

    Arne  I spent over eight years sailing continuously in the tropics. I had a large light genoa that was so rotten it ripped easily after four years. My sails all needed replacing after the eight years. And the story of my life is I could never afford that. Bought a second hand set so I had reliable redundancy. Sail strength was always a worry. So was the storage! 

    I am in Spain now. I have a sewing machine and when asked or I see a battered sailor who needs sails repaired  get out the machine and help out.   I ask how old the sails are and by pulling out fibres and seeing how they stand up to light tugs know that most sails have lost their strength  after a few years of rugged more tropical cruising. It is different in the UK where I was for several years. Not unusual to have a suit of sails 30 years on yachts used infrequently. 

    By the time I arrive back in NZ  I expect to have trashed my expensive set of sails because 44 years of  cruising has shown me Dacron sails do not last even though I am meticulous about covering them. I would much rather have trashed a cheap set of sails and kept my Dacron sails for best dressed cruising back in the NZ.  For intensive burst  ocean cruisers like me a sail that cost-effectively lasts a trip back to NZ would be bliss. A set of Dacron sails is good for 2000 hours of sunlight before having expensive issues. 

    Incidentally on eBay there is a Tyvek MPS spinnaker for sale. Luff 48 feet! Being for sale is probably no endorsement! However that sail was made professionally. Some of the modern lightweight sail materials are only good for two years so nowadays there are many different views regarding sail longevity and the criteria for building that sail in the first place.  I lean towards the forever camp! http://www.ebay.com/itm/used-tyvek-asymmetrical-Experimental-spinnaker-drifter-sail-racing-cruising-/251919667194

    On my last Bermuda rigged boat I paid £600 just to have my mainsail re sewn although the cloth was past best and I knew not up to a sail back to NZ.  If I had kept the boat I would have bought an old second hand suit as backup if going ocean.  

    So sails have an on going cost and maintenance. Just possibly a suit of Tyvek throwaways would in the long run be more economical. Incidentally Tyvek sails can be made quickly with two sided tape and urethane glue.  The whole point is that Tyvek  offered the possibility of cheap quick and easily made sails.   And a year of use is long enough to make it to the other side of the world with intact sails cost effectively. 

    Reports, data and opinions of that sort experience coupled with ocean cruising  is what is relevant. 

  • 21 Feb 2016 10:21
    Reply # 3835038 on 1206989
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Annie,

    sure, paying more money for the sail material is no guarantee that it is good, but the odds are improved. By the way, pointy rigs eat their sails, due to flogging and extreme stress (compared to junk sails), in particular on long offshore voyages. If I were dumb enough to plan a trans-ocean voyage with a pointy rig, I surely would add a squaresail for the downwind legs and keep those precious pointy sails well covered much of the time.

    However, this is not only ocean voyaging versus pottering around the bay (my style), but also about the threshold of making a sail, all by oneself. You and I can sew up a new 30m2  junksail in around a week, no problem. However,  quite a lot of people are not so keen on making their own sails, so if they still decide to do it, they may just as well want the sail(s) to last, at least if they are to make bigger sails, meant for crossing oceans.

    In addition, although small boats may get away with cheapo sail material, then small sails will be cheap anyway.

    Arne

    PS: I bet less than ten percent of the sailors in the world sail as far as 50000Nm in their whole life.

     

       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

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