buying a new main

[Wayne Steinhour]

I've come to the conclusion that the mainsail on the O'Day 23 that I bought a couple of seasons ago needs replacement. My boat is a 1977 model, and I think the main is probably original. It's pretty stretched out in the belly.

I don't know much about buying sails. After talking to a few sailmmakers, I have a few questions:

Full battens vs. partial battens - I added lazy jacks this year. We like 'em. A couple of the sailmakers I talked to said that full battens will work best with lazy jacks. Another one said I should use full battens for the top 2 and partial battens for the bottom 2. He likes partial battens for the bottom because he says it will give a better shape. Any opinions?

Cloth weight and type. The guy at North Sails recommends their NorDac 5.7 cloth, which seems like pretty heavy cloth. (I am more interested in durability than speed.) A guy at an independent loft (Kent Sails near Detroit) recommended Challenge Performance Cruise 5.18, which seems very light. He says a light cloth will work better in light air and will still hold up well. The guy at the Doyle loft I talked to says the Challenge 5.18 won't hold up well. He would use Bainbridge Ocean Premium Plus 6.3, saying it will stretch less and hold its shape better in the long run because it's woven tighter with high modulus yarn. I want a sail that holds up for a long time. Any advice on picking cloth?

Reefs - I figure on getting a couple of reefs in the sail. That's what my boom is already set up for. Since I am planning to bring lines back to the cockpit, I want to be able to reef without going up to the mast to let the slugs out of the slot in the mast. One sailmaker says he can just space the slugs and reef points carefully to let the reefs be pulled down tight without dropping any slugs out of the track. The other two say that would be too hard on the sail. They recommend jacklines. One said that I would need to re-tension the jackline when I reef, which kind of defeats the purpose of bringing lines aft. The other said that the jackline could be set up so I would not need to re-tension it. Who is right here?

Sorry about the long post. I will appreciate any advice anyone has on buying a sail.

Wayne

 

[Mick143]

D&R Marine (508)644-3001 14 Water Street Assonet Ma. Rudy and Deb are all things O'Day. Purchased our new Neil Pryde sails Main and Jib for our 28 ft O'day. Could not have been easier. Good prices great service.

 

[RichBone]

This website's store has good deals on new sails

 

[Indysailor]

I also bought a main from D&R, but from reading Wayne's post I wonder whether the ones Rudy has will fit the bill. I just bought the stock main for my 23, which is partial battens, one reef point. It may be 5.7 oz. cloth, but I can't remember. The NP sail I received is very nice and it was less expensive at the time (although Rudy did raise his price right after I bought mine).
You may want to call Rudy, but if that doesn't work, the prices here are very competitive.

 

[anchorclanker]

Dont forget used. There are several sites that may have a good used sail and very good prices. If yours lasted 35 years, one in good condition could last a decade or more.

 

[ebsail]

If price were no object, then
All full battens
loose foot
Spectra cloth
Dutchman system in that order
Everything less is a function of price. I would put full battens at the top of my list. If too expensive then go to 2 full top battens and so on down the list. In any case, it should not be neccessary to remove any sail slugs from the mast slot when reefing. If you always sail with at least another person or have an autopilot, I have found it much easier to reef from the mast position. You need the second person to hold the tiller temporariily. From the mast, 1. Lower the main halyard. Cleat is right there 2. Insert the luff reefing hole onto the reefing hook. 3. Tighten halyard. 4. Pull boom up (or sail down) with leach reefing line and cleat (on the boom) Returnd to cockpit. You never have to move to do this. With pracically no friction in this system, you should do this in about 1-2 minutes total. When working from the cockpit with all the friction, its much harder. Ernie

 

[Wayne Steinhour]

Ernie,

The sailmaker at Doyle here quotes the same price for all full battens or 2 full + 2 partial, so money is not the issue. I'm going to go talk to him in person this weekend, but I am leaning toward all full battens. He is also quoting the same price for a couple of the more premium cloths from Challenge as for the Bainbridge cloth. A guy I asked at Challenge recommends their highest quality dacron in a fairly light weight for my boat (their 5.6 wt 104 cloth), so I will probably go with that.

I appreciate your advice on reefing. My crew is not real comfortable either going to the mast or taking the tiller wind conditions call for reefing, so I am planning to bring the halyards and the forward reefing lines back to the cockpit. I think that we can reach the aft reefing lines which are cleated at about mid-boom from the companionway, so I am not planning to bring those back.

Thank for the input guys. I'll let you know what I figure out this weekend.

Wayne