Bainbridge Ocean Premium Plus Sails

[Pete7]

Anyone used Bainbridge Ocean Premium Plus sail cloth? it's the one with a rip stop thread about every 1/2" in both directions giving a square pattern to the material and one of the options I have been given by a local sailmaker. Is this a quality cloth or cheap and the rip stop idea just a gimmick despite Bainbridge claiming

"Ocean Premium Plus sailcloth delivers the very best performance figures of any woven polyester produced by Bainbridge"

The sail will be a cross cut Genoa for a 31ft cruising yacht so laminates and fancy Dacrons like HydraNet or Vectron are out due to the budget unfortunately, HydraNet was $1500 more

The other choice looks like Fibercon All Purpose from Contender which is $300 more than the Premium Plus.

The fall back option is Marblehead because it's a known material, don't have a price yet though.

Pete

Photo of Ocean Premium Plus from Bainbridge

[islandplanet]

Pete,

We used to use Bainbridge cloth back when they were still producing HSX.
For your boat, I'd suggest either Challenge Marblehead or Challenge high modulus low aspect for the genoa. Since the sail isn't that large, I think the investment in Marblehead would be well warranted. I'll send you a pm with some details.

[Pete7]

Dave, many thanks for the reply. Looking at the sample of the Ocean Premium Plus 753 I have in front of me it doesn't look as tightly woven as say the 6.9oz Contender Supercruise we have now.

I am a little disappointed with Supercruise, yes the sail is now 11 years old and came with the boat, but we have been nursing the Genoa now for several years needing annual repairs. It looks like a tarts bedsheet, but has only been used very lightly by the previous owner and moderately for weekend sailing by us.

Do you know anything about the Contender Fibrecon fabrics?

Fibercon All Purpose

Marblehead remains the fall back option.

Pete

[islandplanet]

Pete,

In spite of the name, Supercruise is Contender's entry level cloth, and is not something I'd use for any serious sailing. Here's an excerpt from the Contender website:

Supercruise is the most affordable fabric of our woven sailcloth range and has a quality Polypreg finish for a reliable performance.

Any cloth that relies on a lot of resin just doesn't hold up well in the long run.

As for Fibrecon, the reason I don't use it is that I feel the base yarns in the Challenge line are of better quality. Challenge uses a lot of 1W70, Fiber104, and Dacron 52, which are all very well regarded materials. I really don't have much experience with Fibrecon and there may be some sailmakers that have differing opinions. At the end of the day, we all do what we feel is best for our customers and the future of our businesses.

We enjoy a good relationship with Challenge, and even though we are a small customer of theirs compared to some of the big brand names, they have been wonderful to work with.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by islandplanet

Any cloth that relies on a lot of resin just doesn't hold up well in the long run.

No it hasn't unfortunately but cost the previous owner a fortune, more in 2001 than its replacement will cost me now.

We have just had a major boatshow in the UK so took the time to visit and discuss with several of the sail makers. I get the impression that this financial crisis is is hurting the cheaper end of the sail market as folk who like me might have replaced sails are now holding on for a couple more years. After all although Dacron will loose their shape they will continue on for years.

To try and help win the orders sail makers are trying to offer cheaper sails which would be affordable and you cant blame them for that, it might be the difference between someone having a new sail and struggling on with the old sails. Unfortunately changing names of sail cloths does muddy the water and its not just the small sail makers. North have just changed their name for Nordac 4800 to Nordac ND68LA on their quotes.


Pete

[islandplanet]

Pete,

I think there's increasing demand for less expensive everything. It's spread throughout all industries. Some here refer to it as "Wal-Mart-ization." Globalization changed the face of sailmaking just like it has with other industries. It's no surprise you can get a replacement sail for less than the previous owner spent for the sail you have now. I have no idea who built that sail but some UK lofts, like Hyde, moved production offshore. In the case of Hyde, they opened a loft in Cebu, PI.

As for the Nordac name change, I think they have changed the nomenclature to reflect the cloth. For instance, the ND68LA is probably 6.8oz low aspect. My chief complaint with Nordac is that North doesn't seem to publish any specs on the cloth which makes it impossible for any sort of intelligent comparison between their cloth and others.