New Sail Wrinkles

[Talbot]

Do you know what thread was used to sew the sail together. It would be really sad if they used normal thread, rather than the better but more pricey alternatives. Are the seams double or triple sewn? I considered Hydranet for some time due to its longevity, but ended up with Dacron as my sailing ambitions had to be downsized with my health.


You might consider asking the sailcloth manufacturer about this https://www.dimension-polyant.com/?lang=en

[gruffa]

I'm a sailmaker.
Definitely something weird going on there.
The lines of wrinkles don't coincide with all seams, battens reefs or whatever.
They just seem regular, roughly parallel with the foot.
Looks more like the material has been stretched along those lines. How I cannot imagine.
I would not expect that from a new sail.
Was it stored rolled up in a bag in a hot place for a while??
Weird.

Can you post a higher resolution pic or a link to such a pic?

[Sheet]

Thanks again to everyone who shared their opinion. I will try to post a couple more photos but I suspect the resolution is being reduced.

JPA CATE
Unfortunately the thread is not PTFE. We requested PTFE but the sailmaker did not use it and said it would cause problems because it did not stretch.(?) The battens were adjusted by the sailmaker. We attempted to adjust them more but the battens were very difficult to invert when tacking.

Wingsail
You mentioned the sailcloth not being equally tensioned which has been suggested by others as well. We tried different halyard tension and outhaul with no affect.

Singlespeed
We agree with you on expecting some wrinkles but not this many on a new sail.

Markiobe
Recut a new sail! Yikes!

gruffa
You noticed what other sailmakers have said regarding the wrinkles not coinciding with the battens or seams. To our knowledge we received the sail a couple of weeks after it was completed and it had these wrinkles when it was first raised. I am unsure on how to upload a higher resolution or link. Maybe I could PM you.

Being our first purchase of new sails we were unsure of reasonable expectations so we reached out to you. Would you be happy with these? The sailmaker finally agreed to file a warranty claim and we are waiting for a response.
Thank you!

[gruffa]

Thanks for the extra pictures.
That definitely looks bad.
A new sail should not have that many wrinkles.

You say the sailmaker is putting in a warranty claim. Meaning it was manufactured elsewhere?
If that's the case, some suppliers are very good with claims. I had one Hyde sail rebuilt because of leech guttering on a new sail. It wasn't cheap either. I can't speak for other manufacturers though.
If I made that sail I would take it back. (And seriously wonder how it happened)

One possibility is there is more shape built in than the stiffness of the battens allow for, so they are trying to flatten it out, but the portions between the battens have that extra material they can't get rid of.
But then again, in other photos the stretching looks really localised so wouldn't fit that theory.

It's difficult to imagine how this look occurs.

A separate issue, not isolated to this sail is the use of radial patches where the panel is not radial. i.e: at the reefs. Only the tack clew and head are radial.
You can see the inconsistent stretch at the reef patches.
Even so, you should not see that on a brand new sail. It usually shows up later.
Are you sure this sail was brand new, and not passed on to you as a resell ??

I wish you a good resolution!

[Sheet]

Bellinghamster, I looked up the Hydranet photo on the Precision website and yes it has wrinkles. I sent Precision an email and they replied,

"The picture I think you are referring to was taken by the sailor at the time of install. The sails just came out of the box, are not trimmed and the boat is tied to the dock. This sail is an in-mast furling sail that the sailor opted to not have vertical battens designed into it."

It's understandable why the owner omitted the battens and probably accepted the compromise of having wrinkles. If I were Precision I think would find another example of their work with Hydranet...

[Redreuben]

If you accepted the lowest quote you got what you paid for.
I’d be making noise with the sailmaker.