New sails for our Fountaine Pajot Saona

[SvenB]

Hi,

We are looking to renew our sails in Spain in September.
Since we know very little about the different canvas choices, I would like to know what and why you would go for:
Vectron (VEC100) - this sailmaker says VEC120 would be overkill and to heavy
Vectron (VEC120) - other sailmaker said this is the best choice
Pro Radial PR434 (triradial cut)
Hidranet Radial HNR 443 (triradial cut)

These are all canvasses from Dimension Polyant. We are liveaboards on a Fountaine Pajot Saona and are crossing oceans. We are cruising smart and safe and are not racing-performance oriented. We now have the original factory dacron sails.

[more]

DACRON SAILCLOTH if you have money to change sail every 3-4 year us this funcy sail and gain 1 knot maybe.please what you duing with your sail may is from 2003 and have 80 % life inside.

sail is change when is in 10 pieces,i give you big secret sail is possible repair

[CarlF]

Three years ago after much discussion with my sailmaker Dave Calvert (who was helmsman of the 98ft cat Playstation in his younger days that still holds a transatlantic record) - we settled on Dimension Polyant Pro Radial for my Leopard 50. The sails are incredibly fast. There are two ProRadials out there so this is the one I used:

https://www.dimension-polyant.com/po...al-en/?lang=en

That went into this discussion was that I did not want a laminate cloth and wanted a sail that could last 10 years (with a bit of luck).

He felt that the DP Hydranets are very good too (same company) but you pay a very large premium for a very small percentage of high tech thread. He believes it isn't noticeably lower stretch or longevity than the Pro Radial.

He didn't consider Vectron a good choice but I can't remember why. Its use in sails has pretty much gone away.

The big advance in sails is the "crimpless" weaving. This greatly reduces the stretch in the crimpless direction. But you have to use triradial design to really take advantage of this by aligning the crimpless direction with the pull on as much of the sail as possible.

For a cat, the biggest sail challenge is to have a leech that doesn't stretch and "open" depowering the sail. Ideally all the battens should be parallel to the boom not sagging off to leeward. This requires pulling down really hard on the boom to bring the battens into line. With my new sails on a Leopard 50 (e.g. production boat), I can sail upwind at 32 degrees apparent and 52 degrees true doing 7.5 knots in a 12kt true wind. Tacking angle - measured from the chartplotter track so it includes leeway - was 110 degrees. Better than many monohulls. I do have folding props which makes this possible.

You might want to contact Dave Calvert. While he's based in Florida the sails are made overseas and can be shipped anywhere. He only does cat sails and has spent a lifetime just on cat sails. Prices are very reasonable for the quality. If nothing else, he could answer a lot of questions - https://www.calvertsails.com

In the picture you can see all of the battens are aligned with the boom except the very top one is sagging off a bit. Dave said that was OK and it would take a laminate sail to get the top one aligned.

[SailingHarmonie]

Different kind of boat, but we also went with Polyant Pro Radial.

The discussion we had with our sailmaker went like this:

If you can afford it, absolutely get Radial cut sails. The performance difference is worth the cost. You do NEED to use sailcloth made for radial sails.

I'd be happy to sell you Hydranet sails, I'll make a lot more money if you go that way. But compared to Polyant, you will not see a longer lifespan. Yes, you will get a LITTLE less stretch in use, but you are a cruising boat, you can not really take advantage of that. If you are racing above the club or beer-can level, then Hydranet starts to makes sense, but for most boats, it is an extravagance.

Our Polyant genoa is 4 1/2 years old, and has about 20,000 miles on it. We just this week had it inspected at a local sailmaker, who replaced the head and tack loops, and the suncover, and pronounced the rest of it in "excellent" shape.

We have Polyant Radial sails for our genoa, main and mizzen, and see no reason to question that decision.

[SvenB]

Hi Carl,
Thx for the feedback.
Do you know what kind of Pro Radial was used? WS it the PR434? Same canvas for main and headsail?

[Tupaia]

My vote goes to Pro Radial as well.



I have had everything from Kevlar, Cuben Fibre, Carbon, Vectran, Marblehead Dacron.


The cross cut Marblehead Dacron material outlasted everything, except because it was cross cut sails lost their shape relatively quickly. Being able to use essentially the same material in a weave that enable radial sails is a perfect combination.

[yeloya]

Hidranet Radial HNR 443 (triradial cut) is the way to go. They are expensive, but very resistant to UV, last very long and perform very well..

Cheers

Yeloya

[CarlF]

Originally Posted by SvenB

Hi Carl,
Thx for the feedback.
Do you know what kind of Pro Radial was used? WS it the PR434? Same canvas for main and headsail?

Dave Calvert picked the weight but I'm quite sure it was PR434 because the mainsail on an L50 is pretty big. I believe he checked with DP to make sure it was OK.