"Milton Waddams" wrote in message
...
I'm looking at picking up a set of used sails for a very good price.
They are super clean and show little wear, the stitching is good. They
do have a good numbers of years of use in windy conditions. Is there
any way for check to see that they are not "blown out"?

Difficult to do without putting them on the boat and taking them for a sail
in wind over 10kts. But you can assume that if they've had a "good number
of years of use in windy conditions," they will be blown out, at least to
some degree. Dacron simply stretches when exposed to sun and wind. Period.
There are no exceptions here. Even mylar/kevlar/spectra/etc. will blow out
with exposure to sun and wind.

Do I have to
resort to measuring them against the original loft's specs or are
there some things to look for that make the process easier?

Measuring them against the loft's specs may not tell the whole story. For
example, it is nearly impossible to measure the draft in a sail without it
being on spars and inflated by wind. A sail won't always increase in it's
luff and foot dimensions, even if blown out. The previous owner could have
stretched those dimensions of a main by applying too much force to the main
halyard or boom outhaul, for example, but that same stretching distortion
could be applied to a brand new suit of sails as well, if abused.

A genoa is generally easier to assess in terms of stretch. When the draft
of a genoa increases as a result of being blown out, the crew will typically
apply more tension to the sheets, tending to stretch the foot dimension of
the sail. Tougher to assess on a mainsail.

My advice: look elsewhere. Like the cherry '57 Chevy driven only on
Sundays by a little old lady from Pasadena (at the local dragstrip), sails
used for years in high-wind conditions will not be of much service. Unless
you can buy them very cheaply, you'd probably be better off looking for a
newer suit with less heavy-air time.

There is one other option: if the sails are in apparently good condition,
you could always have them recut to specs. But I'm guessing they have been
cleaned and resized (stiffening material applied to make them 'feel' newer)
Blown out sails, even when cleaned and recut, won't last must longer than if
they weren't cleaned and recut. My 2 cents worth.

Max