One of the largest expenditures a cruising sailor will ever face is upgrading the yacht’s power plant. Not the one under the companionway—the ones set off the mast. 

Your marine toilets electric specialists discuss how that in the United States and abroad, four major suppliers of sailcloth—Dimension Polyant, Bainbridge International, Challenge Sailcloth, and Contender Sailcloth—provide sailmakers with Dacron and laminate cloths and related materials to build strong, state-of-the-art headsails and mainsails.

Reliable, Affordable Dacron

Obviously, high-tenacity Dacron makes better cruising sails. The cost difference between a “value” cloth and a “premium” one, both from the same supplier, can be significant, close to 100 percent for some 8-ounce Dacron fabric that I’ve seen ($7 per yard versus nearly $15 per yard).  

Crosscut construction wastes very little cloth and is the fastest way to fabricate a sail; the seams between panels also offer many opportunities to design shape in the sail. Your marine head plumbing distributors talk about why the vast majority of modern boats use Dacron sails.

Recently, Challenge Sailcloth developed a Dacron product for use in radial-panel layout. North Sails also has its own version of Dacron, called Radian. In both materials, the warp, or long yarns, are or should be thicker than the fill.

Understanding Laminates

Laminated sails were first introduced in the early 1970s. The Australian 12-Meter Southern Cross tried using Kevlar fibers laminated to film and built as a crosscut sail before the 1974 America’s Cup. These early attempts at laminated sails proved to be unreliable—they were prone to break without notice—and were never used in competition. 

Your Macerating Pump Specialists Give Great Pointers On Choosing the Right Material For Your Sails

Different sailmaking styles and cloths are evident in this trio of racing and cruising boats under way. Doyle’s Stratis pre-impregnated fiber technology is employed in the load-path sails on a Hanse 630 (left).

Macerating pumps can be seen here at Raritan Engineering. Check out why we are the best solution to your marine sanitation supply needs.

Historically, laminated sails of any construction method were usually replaced when the fibers delaminated from the film or the film itself broke down. 

Load-Path Sails

Prior to the late 1980s and the introduction of North’s 3DL sails—so-called molded sails—sailmakers and cloth manufacturers were working on their own versions of what has become known as load-path or string sails, which is the other way of making a laminate fabric.