Geez, Louise, do we always have to have a debate on "Made in The USA" versus "Offshore-made products, i.e., sails?" It's even been mentioned that those of us who knock "offshore manufacturers" are biased against Asians!! Actually, nothing could be further from the truth...some of finest sailing craft in the world are made in Taiwan, namely Tayana and, gets this, Hans Christian...which by its namesake one be led to believe the boat's Dutch, again a great country known worldwide for its well-made, North Sea-tested boats! In fact, my 78H30 has a brand new Danish-built engine in it. But, folks, here's my 2-cents on sails. Just last week, I dropped a few nickels on a brand new cruising chute made by a longtime LOCAL sailmaker friend who charges a fair price for quality work and who, in this instance, got a savings on spinnaker cloth, called me knowing I had been asking him about a new pole-less chute and passed those savings on to me, thus saving me about 50% on the sail. In the past year, I've spent about $3,200 with him -- again representing a sizeable savings -- on a number of things and I have gotten much, much more in terms of added value for my money. Look, buy offshore if that's what cocks your pistol, but think a little outside the linear dimensions of the check you write. How about service after the sale? How about being on top of the list to call when savings are to be had? How about the occasional stopping by my boat to see how things are holding up? How about the occasional freebie just because he saw something that needed to be fixed and only took a couple of minutes? How about the tons of free advice I've gotten over the years? How about having a local throat to put my hands around if something doesn't work as advertised? How about not being so damned tight that a hundred bucks is a deal-killer on a totally luxury hobby? Local sailmakers can be a sailor's best friend who can save sailors money in the long haul. Let's support these folk just as much as we support the local boat supply business, the yacht clubs, fuel docks, shipyards and others who are all part of what we do! Again, just my 2 cents.