Arturo Ui wrote:
I'm about to place an order for a new genoa for cruising & racing on my
24' boat, and have received a bewildering array of styles and prices,
from a straight cut Dacron genoa to a tri-radial Kevlar laminate genoa.
Priced in the middle are materials such as Twaron, Polykote and Pentex.


A big deal is made of sail cut. The Dacron sails are usually offered
straight cut (Non radial cut) and the laminated fabrics seem to be
offered more radially cut than not.


That's because of the difference in the direction each one
uses it's strength... unless the Dacron is woven with
heavier or straighter threads in one direction, then the
panel orientation will matter less than the filler, finish,
and of course weight of the cloth. The laminated sails try
to get the direction of the strongest threads running mostly
in the direction of the stress on the sail, a comples business.



Am I best off going for a laminated genoa that is non-radial cut,
rather than a radial-cut dacron genoa? (Some sailmakers offer
attractive prices on Twaron laminate, not radially cut)


Ringmaster wrote:
I would think a cross cut Dacron sail made with a high performance
cloth would be fine for a 24 foot boat.

Especially for a light air sail.

.... If you wanted to step it up a
notch go with a tri-radial laminated sail which uses Dacron or Pentex
between the mylar skins. Any sailmaker who is pitching you on Kevlar
or any other exotic (read expensive) cloth for a 24' boat is not
serving you. This is assuming of course that you are not going Grand
Prix racing. A good friend who has owned 2 lofts (major franchises)
told me once that the use of exotic crap on boats smaller than 30' is a
waste since the loads just arn't there.


Agreed. Although the sail can be made of lightweight stuff
that will depend on the panel orientation... and IMHO the
seams... to keep it from blowing out quickly, light a medium
#1... bad idea for longevity though.

A lot of smaller one designs are using mylar laminates, but
that may just be because they look cool. The stresses are
small so the sail could last forever if it were never
flogged or crumpled.

Fresh Breezes- Doug King