Quote:
Originally Posted by desertmonk
There is a 16 foot sloop (rebel) I am looking at that is complete but without sails. Do the sails have to be specifically made for this boat or can one use generic main and jib?
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You can use sails not specifically made for your boat, but they need to be reasonably close to the size of the original sails. You will probably spend too much
money trying to alter sails to fit to be worthwhile if the sails don't fit or have incompatible
hardware. An example would be whether the boat needs slugs, or slides, or just pushes the bolt
rope into the
mast groove. Another thing to figure out is whether the jib is supposed to have a wire luff that takes all the load of holding the
mast up, or if it just uses hanks. There are several details like this that you need to know the answer to before
buying just any sail.
On another level, if you want performance or want to
race, then you want sails cut for that boat. The difference will probably only be really noticable if you are sailing against another boat in class though. A one design
racer like this will have had a lot of effort into to finding the right shape to get the boat to perform well. Also if you want to
race, the sails must conform to class rules. When you sell the boat, if the sails are not class
legal, and if the new owner wants to race, sails that don't conform will have no value. Realistically sails that do conform and are over a year or two old will have drastically reduced value to the
racer as well.
This page on the Rebel website gives the sail dimension measurements required to be class
legal. Sometimes you can get decent sails that the racers think are worthless. Check to see if they have a swap page on the site.
http://www.rebelsailor.com/constitut....7.15.2002.pdf
John