Buying sails in Southern hemisphere

[clockwork orange]

I live in north America and we get the best discounts on sails when ordering in the fall but i am wondering when the best discounts on ordering new sails are available down under. I know that a lot of folks buy sails direct from Asia but it seems to me that buying direct from NZ or Aus who have world class sailmakers, at the right time of year and with the favorable exchange rates it may make sense cutting out the middle man. Obviously you have to be responsible for taking your own measurements but if all you are doing is replacing a sail that fits fine thats no problem.

[GILow]

Speaking from personal experience I didn’t find a cheaper time in all my shopping around. All that seemed to change was the estimated delivery time. The good outfits do get busy in race season.

Still, no harm in finding out. Of course you’ll have to wait a while, race season is just warming up down here.

[billknny]

If you could find a loft that actually manufactures sails in NZ or Aus, you can get a good deal more from exchange rate than timing.

I think you will find most lofts of any size manufacture new sails in China or Siri Lanka, and you’ll get a better deal with more service working with a local dealer..

[clockwork orange]

Most local lofts over here are affiliated with a big loft as well and they typically don't make many sails themselves either. For anything other than replacing an existing sail that you are happy with i would still use a local loft but it seems to me that there are many offshore lofts such as Tasker for example where you order from a local rep, you supply the measurements and they order it but im sure they are not passing along the exchange rate advantage. If i were to order a sail that was, say, $3000 in the NZ all things being equal(which i know they are not) the exchange rate would make it around $2000 US. A good savings. i would say. Im sure the only way to know for sure is to get quotes from a number of lofts.

[Jim Cate]

FWIW, I've not found much of anything that is cheaper here in Oz. The exchange rate is favorable, but costs here, especially on high labor items, tend to be quite high. When you add in shipping and the risks of remote purchase, I doubt that you would break even, let alone come out ahead. And BTW, ALL the lofts that I have used here in Oz (and there have been several) build the sails in their own lofts. There may well be some that outsource the builds, but I've not come across them yet.

The benefits of using a local sailmaker have been explained many times here on CF, and I surely recommend that practice myself,even if some work is outsourced.

Jim

[sailjumanji]

I had replacement sails for our Seawind 1000 built by Neil Tasker at Barracouta Sails in Australia. They were race competitive, and still had great shape when we sold the boat ten years later. Cruise laminate. He was very familiar with Seawind and made a perfect fit sail and I provided no measurements. Cheaper than our US based Quantum loft, and one of the Florida based multihull lofts.

Neil is currently building sails for our Seawind 1160 Lite under construction, using DP GPL Lite Skin. I wanted something with excellent performance life. All-in costs were cheaper than US based quotes. He worked with factory and local Aussie boats to get measurements. We went thru several iterations on design, especially the square top, centre of effort analysis to assure we weren't inducing weather helm, etc. Although a cruising boat, our Lite should not be slow!

Neil is very well respected in the Aussie multihull community, and his sails are found on race thru cruising boats. At the moment, the weak Aussie dollar makes it a no-brainer especially considering his design capacity, and the quality of build. In previous life we were trimaran racers, and life is too short to use sails that don't have good shape. Even on a cruising boat. IMHO

[sailjumanji]

And Barracouta Sails are made in the Aussie loft. I get progress pics. Jib is finished, half the main done, spin not started yet!

[Kestrahl]

There is a big variance in Sailmakers in Australia and NZ. A lot outsource the sails, some make locally but use seconds grade material to be price competitive. The labor is more expensive than the US despite the exchange rate. There are some good ones but unless you really know the sailmaker, its going to be hard figuring out whats what. So maybe better to get to know a local sailmaker in the US?

A lot of big sailmakers outsource to Sri-Lanka, to Philippines like Neil Pryde. Turkey, Tunisia. In the past to China but now not really.