Mainsail Sailcloth Weight - 8, 9, 10oz ?

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

Googled Sweedish sails and nothing popped up. Such a thing does not exist;-)

Links, tips, clues ?

b.

Its an old concept - from the hiscock days - a higher aspect (than a trysail) battenless, hollow roach storm main.

Some superyachts carry them as 'passage/delivery' mainsails. They save the 'good sails' for when the owner is on board.

I have not run across a cruiser using one in a long time and they don't really meet the OCR requirement (because they need to be somehow sheeted to the boom and not the quarters) so racers can't carry them.

I have always thought they made some sense, and have been interested in trying on when my current trysail dies, but my trysail is well made and probably is going to live forever.

[Butler]

I knew Ameerican was spelled with two es and everyone told me I was wrong! I'm gonna treat myself to some Sweedish Fish now!

I remember now that I saw it in Street's Ocean Sailing Yacht... the first volume where he tagged it as a Swedish Storm Sail, It's just as you describe it estarzinger, thanks. The concept seemed interesting to me as well and Street writing in the 70s mentioned it as a good "older idea" that had been in use for awhile.

Related to the earlier comment about mains ripping the same book talks about that and the fact the while on Iolaire they never had to deal with a torn main but over the course of his ownership replaced a couple of storm trysails... this because his were the size of a double reefed main and they handed the main "early and often".

Lot's of good info in this thread, as usual... thanks all!

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

So these are all my guesses. In any case I would not like tan sails on my boat much as I would desire all my storm sails to be storm orange. Actually, I thought of making the top panels of our main in storm orange but I could only source heavy cloth. Maybe next time though.

Zeus here has tan sails and she looks awesome every time I see her on the harbour. I can also see her very early when they return from offshore. She is a Endurance ketch.

I will be installing a trysail track on my Selden mast and the trysail and storm staysail will both be orange. I am of the opinion stated above that if it's bad enough to damage a double-reefed main, bring it down (or off entirely) and go with a trysail tensioned flat.

I'm painting our wind gen in International Orange and putting a stripe on the pilothouse roof, and maybe even the bottom of the keel. Hey, you never know...

[u4ea32]

Probably too late, but let me add my $0.02 ...

The very best main by far that I've ever cruised under was a two ply Hood main, where the weight of the cloth (each layer) was essentially half the weight of the single layer cloth: instead of 12 oz, it was 2 layers of 5.5 oz. This was an 80 footer, 100 foot hoist main! The "soft finish" Hood cloth is really amazing stuff, you can't believe how much easier it is to handle than a single ply heavier sail, especially when reefing or furling. I could easily put my arms around the sail when folded. Amazing way to build a main.

The best mains for racing, or if you just have a fat wallet, are certainly made from Cuben Fiber. That is almost magical stuff, about half the weight of even high tech alternatives, and very tough and resistent to chafe and tear propagation. For example, on Team Adventure during The Race, a running backstay block exploded and sent the sheave through the middle of the main. They just kept racing, fixing it only when they had to stop in port to repair structural failures. The dramatically reduced weight of the sail had an enormous performance advantage, and the sail looked virtually as good as new after the circumnavigation.