Tuesday 24 November 2015

Main sail buying tips

When buying a main sail for your boat (whether it is a brand new or a used one), you need to take care about some factors which may affect your boat’s performance during the offshore trip or race. By understanding these basic factors you can help yourself in your main sail search.

Material: while the earlier sails were made up from Dacron, today the premium plastic made sails are the hot favorite due to their low cost, longevity, durability, soft touch, UV stability and better performance in all types of wind conditions. But the only problem is , it cannot deliver the same weight saving or shape that is usually offered in Racron.
Corner, clews and eyes: In the opinion of traditional sail makers the hand stitched corners and clews are best, but the others prefer the high quality pressed-in eyes. While a wide range of quality of eyes is available in mainsails for sale, the stainless steel made eyes are regarded the best.
Batten banter:  It is completely your own choice to decide that whether you want to buy a full length batten or a partial batten. While partial batten is simply adjustable, easy to trim according to wind and cost effective. For more improved results, you can have two partial battens for distributing the load of sails.
Reef Points: After deciding the batten style, pay attention to the number and position of the reef points in the available options of mainsails for sale. Instead of traditional three reef points, today the two reef sails are popular because of better area and performance.
Loose or fixed foot:  You can choose the mainsail in any of these two options as per your convenience, yet the loose foot is the ongoing trend as it helps in easy and efficient sail trimming.
Taming of mainsail: The classic Dutchman stowage system is still effective even after the launch and popularity of modern flaking systems with lazy jacks and cover system combos.
Making the decision for selecting a right option from many mainsail for sale is difficult one for an average sailor. So take your time and consider the cost efficient, high performing and potentially durable mainsail for your boat. 

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