Choose the right Mainsail for your cruising boat

Are you planning to buy a mainsail? Are you surfing through the web in search of a good deal of mainsails for sale? But mainsail cannot be bought just like that. Not only mainsail, no sail should be just added to cart. 

Before purchasing or placing order, you first need to find what is best-suited for your boat and also for your sail plan. 

The latter is more crucial since your sailing itinerary will determine the kind of weather the sails will be exposed to. In our previous post we discussed about the wind conditions and type of sails to choose. 

At this post we shall focus on the size of the boat as a vital determinant of the type of mainsail you would require for your cruising boat.

Find the common mainsail cuts and their corresponding boat sizes below—

Full-Radial 
 
This one is ideal for the smallest cruising boats. To keep the boat in balance, the mainsail should have less stretch and this cut conforms to that. 

Besides this cut is perfect for in-must furling system where the mainsail goes without battens.

Vertical Cut 
 
This too is ideal for battenless mainsails. This is meant for small to medium size boats. Load-bearing seams are eliminated from the leech edge. 

Cross Cut
 
This one is the most popular of all the cuts and frequently used by small to medium size boats. Although this kind of mainsail has got lower stretch than the other cuts, still that is higher than the full-radial cut. 

Bi-Radial
 
A cut that suits medium to large boats. The sailcloth is heavier along the leech section and lighter in foot-luff. 

Tri-Radial
 
This is meant for large boats. The radial shape allows the flexibility of using sailcloth of different weights. Here the overall stretch is kept as low as possible. 

Lighter cloth is used in the center and heavier cloth in the corners.