Oxley Bora vs new ISTEC parasailor?

[muttnik]

I was considering a parasailor but at Boot I discovered Oxley who are making a lookalike version of the now-out-of-patent parasailor and ISTEC have responded with a new version of the parasailor.

- Can anyone point me at any independent reviews or ideally personal experience of the new design parasailor? Ideally a comparison with the old version but I recognise that this sail is new and there's probably few people with personal experience of old and new versions.
- Ditto for the Oxley Bora. Given that the ISTEC reps' main reason why I should prefer their product was that the Bora was a 15-year-old design I'm guessing it's not inferior to the old parasailor which ISTEC had been pitching as great only 4 months previously at the Southampton boat show.

For reference, my boat is a heavy long-fin 12m monohull and after a lot of thinking, despite the heinous cost, a sail of this type would seem to be just what I'm looking for.

[CalmSeasQuest]

We're doing the same research. If you haven't yet, you might also wish to look at the Wingaker Parasail. wingaker.com - Home

We're still trying to work out the differences and best fit.

[muttnik]

Originally Posted by CalmSeasQuest

If you haven't yet, you might also wish to look at the Wingaker Parasail. wingaker.com - Home

Thanks: I have and would also like to hear any comparison between the wingaker and the other two. I believe it's akin to the parasail rather than parasailor, and claims better light airs performance at the expense of less tolerance at the upper end. I doubt my courage to leave a downwind sail up with over 20 knots apparent but in attempt to cut down the field in some kind of rational way, in the absence of other info, I'm going to focus on the set-up-and-leave-for-a-week (allegedly) variants.

[Kestrahl]

The Oxley is apparently designed by the man who originally designed the Para-Sailor and then sold the rights to it. Maybe he regretted that decision, because it was ready to go as soon as the Patent ended. These sails have definitely captured the "boat show" buyers with a lot of marketing, but really they are not that easy for forgiving.
Most cruisers here ( and here is the mid point of most peoples circumnavigation ) are using code zero's and screechers for downwind work, with asymmetrical spinnakers being the next popular. The feedback I get is you'll still need a pole on a mono-hull to keep it stable.

[Kasia]

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone purchased the Oxley or Wingaker sail? We are trying to decide which one to pick, and would love to hear some feedback on both.
Thank you!

[more]

what is price. when i receive an offer for small parasailor price be around 10000€ + gear. and i say thanks.
is price drop

[ozsailer]

We purchased the Wingaker for our lagoon 410. After decided on the wingaker over the after much research. I was able to speak with the designer and owner of the company Lothar Weber. As their was only the wife after speaking with Lothar we went for a slightly smaller sail for our cruising purely based on the facs that it is very easily handled by a couple, the service we received and the fact that Lothar had tested his sails in wind tunnels and also to destruction to obtain a real idea of how his sails would survive. The sail comes with its own snuffer whish we found very easy to use. We found that speaking with Lothar he was able to listen and then suggest the sail for us. We have been very happy with the sail.


Ozsailer

[more]

Originally Posted by ozsailer

We purchased the Wingaker for our lagoon 410. After decided on the wingaker over the after much research. I was able to speak with the designer and owner of the company Lothar Weber. As their was only the wife after speaking with Lothar we went for a slightly smaller sail for our cruising purely based on the facs that it is very easily handled by a couple, the service we received and the fact that Lothar had tested his sails in wind tunnels and also to destruction to obtain a real idea of how his sails would survive. The sail comes with its own snuffer whish we found very easy to use. We found that speaking with Lothar he was able to listen and then suggest the sail for us. We have been very happy with the sail.


Ozsailer

how much you pay and when you bay

[parsiparla]

Originally Posted by muttnik

I was considering a parasailor but at Boot I discovered Oxley who are making a lookalike version of the now-out-of-patent parasailor and ISTEC have responded with a new version of the parasailor.

- Can anyone point me at any independent reviews or ideally personal experience of the new design parasailor? Ideally a comparison with the old version but I recognise that this sail is new and there's probably few people with personal experience of old and new versions.
- Ditto for the Oxley Bora. Given that the ISTEC reps' main reason why I should prefer their product was that the Bora was a 15-year-old design I'm guessing it's not inferior to the old parasailor which ISTEC had been pitching as great only 4 months previously at the Southampton boat show.

For reference, my boat is a heavy long-fin 12m monohull and after a lot of thinking, despite the heinous cost, a sail of this type would seem to be just what I'm looking for.

Originally Posted by CalmSeasQuest

We're doing the same research. If you haven't yet, you might also wish to look at the Wingaker Parasail. wingaker.com - Home

We're still trying to work out the differences and best fit.

Did you guys have any luck? I am stuck trying to figure out the differences and pros/cons between the Istec Parasailor, Wingaker and Oxley...

[Bully]

Or maybe you can get a spinnaker like this-
Has all the benefits of a parasail.
More stable, easy to trim, higher windrange at about 40% of the price

Photo courtesy of Zoom Sails

[parsiparla]

Originally Posted by Bully

Or maybe you can get a spinnaker like this-
Has all the benefits of a parasail.
More stable, easy to trim, higher windrange at about 40% of the price

Photo courtesy of Zoom Sails

Mmm, it should have a lower wind range, be less gust-resistant as a result, and also offer a rougher ride (bows will dig in as wind rises).

We will be sailing long tradewind passages short-handed. The ability to 'set and forget' is worth a lot to us.

[Kestrahl]

Originally Posted by parsiparla

Mmm, it should have a lower wind range, be less gust-resistant as a result, and also offer a rougher ride (bows will dig in as wind rises).

We will be sailing long tradewind passages short-handed. The ability to 'set and forget' is worth a lot to us.

Its actually a derivative of a racing spinnaker designed to be used in 25-40 knots. So it doesn't press the bow, is stable to fly and very strong. Jeremy Bagshaw just used one in the golden globe race - 277 days non stop solo sailing with only windvane self steering. I didn't see any of the competitors using a para-sailor.

[dhenline]

Anyone want to give thoughts on Oxley Levante, vs Istec Parasailor, vs wingaker? vs just a symetrical spnakker for a 44 foot catamaran going across the Atlantic and then the pacific?

[fxykty]

A symmetric spinnaker is significantly less expensive than any of the wing-in-sail spinnakers and will do the job almost as well. Where the wing-in-sail spinnakers do better is in lighter conditions with swell, where the wing stabilises the sail so it stays filled, while the symmetric spinnaker may collapse with each swell.

Other than that, it’s all marketing. Especially on a cat, where spinnaker poles are unnecessary. On a mono, if it’s true that a wing-in-sail spinnaker can be flown without a pole, that could be an advantage.

[Sawbonz]

Originally Posted by dhenline

Anyone want to give thoughts on Oxley Levante, vs Istec Parasailor, vs wingaker? vs just a symetrical spnakker for a 44 foot catamaran going across the Atlantic and then the pacific?

In 2020 we crossed the Pacific using ours. It gave us half of the apparent wind speed and we left it up for 10 days at a time at one stretch. After that we figured out that we had some chafe on the halyard and checked it more often, but the sail was fine. We flew it without difficulty up to 20 knots of apparent. At 169 m² it is slightly undersized for our 45 ft leopard. I found this post because I would like to find a new, slightly larger parasailor.