[C38] Sails - CAL vs Dacron

[Joseph Launie]

Larry,
     My sail maker is Deke Klatt of Ullman sails. Deke and I have been 
friends for about 25 years.  Deke won the J-24 Worlds in Vancouver. He 
has set me up with a dacron main and exotic materials in my headsails 
but no carbon fiber.
Carbon fiber costs more and lasts less than other materials. Joe

On 3/5/2012 9:23 PM, Larry Malmberg wrote:
> Well here goes my 2 cents worth on sails.  I recently took our North 
> mainsail in for a small repair in Los Alamitos CA.  When I dropped it 
> off the sail designer for North sails was in the office and I had a 
> small chat with him.  A couple of weeks later when I picked up the 
> main sail he was there.  I asked if I could chat with him for a few 
> about sails, materials and design.  He accommodated me.  He told me 
> that he was extremely familiar with the Catalina 38 and for racing 
> suggested some very expensive sails.  I won't go into material etc 
> here now but he did tell me one thing that has stuck in my mind.  He 
> suggested a Dacron main sail stating that our boats get their power 
> from the head sail and not really that much from the main sail, his 
> advice was to invest in the head sail for racing.  Made sense to me 
> and he WAS NOT a sail salesman.  LOL
>
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Larry Malmberg
> Team Hassle
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* listserve-bounces at catalina38.org 
> [mailto:listserve-bounces at catalina38.org] *On Behalf Of *Angelika - A 
> Room With A View
> *Sent:* Sunday, March 04, 2012 1:36 PM
> *To:* listserve at catalina38.org
> *Subject:* [C38] Sails - CAL vs Dacron
>
> Hi All
>
> We purchased our beautiful C38 (362) Boheme nearly 7 years ago in 
> Sydney and sailed her to her new home to the southern-most harbour on 
> the Australian mainland, Apollo Bay. Boheme has taken us up and down 
> the eastern seaboard as far as the Great Barrier Reef, a couple of times.
>
> We are currently considering purchasing new sails as she is no longer 
> pointing as high as she initially did and is certainly being 
> out-pointed by most of the keel boats within our local Sailing Club (a 
> very varied fleet ranging from dinghies to a 2007 Jeanneau 39 - this 
> is not GRAND racing but we still like to be relatively competitive).
>
> While we bought Boheme predominantly as a cruising boat we do race her 
> here in Apollo Bay-only over the summer season Oct-Apr.
>
> After initially speaking with my husband Gary, our sailmaker said that 
> CAL sails were the best for us  (we have noticed that Steve/Peregrine 
> was mentioned on another website as having purchased them).  After 
> speaking with me (where I mentioned that I was hoping that CAL sails 
> were also going to improve our cruising sailing speeds etc and 
> therefore justify an additional 50% spend) he has backflipped and 
> suggested that:
>
> 9oz Strong Fill Dacron should be used to replace the ORIGINAL Mainsail
> and we could possibly consider 80z Bluewater Cruise for the 10yr old, 
> 135% Headsail.
>
> Now we are both totally confused as neither of us can see the point of 
> buying cheaper sails if they run the risk of losing their shape and 
> performance quicker therefore needing replacing much sooner - on the 
> otherhand CAL sails do blow our initial budget by about $2000  (ie $5k 
> -6k vs $8k approx.)
>
> If others have had experience with CAL sails your thoughts would be 
> much appreciated especially regarding their ability to maintain 
> correct shape in the longterm as opposed to good quality Dacron
>
> Thanking you
>
> Angelika Millar
> Apollo Bay Vic Australia
>
> PS Many thanks to Commodore Chuck Finn for finally making it possible 
> to get our emails through to the Listserve.  We have 'silently' 
> enjoyed the exchanges for almost 12 months now.
>
>
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