Mauri Sails ?

[Svsilvergirl]

Just stumbled across their website , and the prices for new sails are impressive....looks like they are a broker for a chinese sail loft. They have prices for new main sail and a 135 genoa for my 44 islander for about $3000 each . Our boat only has a100 jib on it now . They show both a135 & 155 genoa . A 155 sounds a lil scary, and prolly overkill , is there really that much of a performance hit using a155 partially furled , or should I be thinking just buying a135 ? Boat actually sails well with the jib she has . Fairly new sailors here , and not sure of the benefit of the larger genoa . But the sails on our boat are the original 1970's sails . Been well cared for , but surely stretched . We sailed with them this summer , but thinking I want to replace them before we head from the pacific northwest to mexico next year.

[islandplanet]

Svsilvergirl,

As owner of Island Planet Sails, I don't see Mauri as a "broker" of sails. Like us, I'm pretty sure Mauri has a sail designer and specifies all the details of how they want their sails produced. The majority of sails are made overseas, just like consumer goods. The top Asian lofts are so good that they are able to do business strictly with legitimate sailmakers, and they don't deal with the public. Those that aren't quite "ready for prime time" will deal with whoever is willing to give them money. Some require that money to be wired so the consumer has no recourse if the sail is not what they ordered.

We just delivered a genoa to another Islander 44 owner who is a successful rigger. Small world.

The most important question you raised is what size genoa should you go with. Most of us at Island Planet Sails are "recovering racers" who discovered cruising. One of our staff (a former America's Cup sail designer) recently completed 17,000 of cruising between the Pacific Northwest and Australia. We advocate smaller headsails combined with what we refer to as a cruising code zero flown from a foil-less furler. Here's a link to an article about the cruising code zero concept on our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/note.php?no...09515292439751

Our goals for keeping a cruising boat moving are pretty straight forward. We want a light air sail that can help us avoid using the diesel. Once our light air sails get enough wind that we can use the regular working sails to propel the boat at or near hull speed, we need an easy way to put the light air sail away. The best tool we've found is the foil-less furler.

We ship a lot of sails to Mexico every season. We highly recommend getting your sails sorted out BEFORE you cross into Mexican waters. The reason is quite simple. Getting stuff shipped to you in Mexico is expensive due to Mexican duties. We use a really good import agent so if your boat has a TIP (Temporary Import Permit), you don't have to pay the huge duty on the sail. However we still have to pay the agent. For the average sail on a 44 footer, you'll probably be paying 300-500 dollars more than you would for the same sail anywhere in the US.

[islandplanet]

For those of you who are adverse to looking at stuff on Facebook, I've pasted in our article on cruising code zero's below.


The Cruising Code Zero concept
by Island Planet Sails on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 at 10:22am

The Code Zero was originally developed as a "rule-beater" racing sail. As cruisers we could care less about ratings and rules. What we want is a sail that is effective in light air, versatile, and most importantly easy to handle. We're not on fully crewed race boats and most of us don't have room to store a bunch of sails. Many of our customers want a single sail solution for light air sailing and we totally understand that. If we added any more sails to our boat we wouldn't have room for scuba tanks, folding bikes, and our other toys.

Our Crusing Code Zero can be used as close to 45 or 50 degrees apparent and is extremely effective to a bit below a beam reach. For sailing deeper angles you ease the tack line which allows the sail to rotate and provide decent downwind performance. I look at a cruising code zero as a Swiss army knife. The traditional assymetrical cruising spinnaker is a bit more powerful on a reach but can't be carried as close to the wind as the code zero. The cruising spinnaker usually starts becoming usable around 60 degree apparent and does not perform well sailing deep downwind angles.

The best tool we've found for managing light air sails is a foil-less furler. Our next favorite method is the ATN sock however the foil-less furler can be set up to be operated from the cockpit and even if operated from deck is much easier to work with. Foil-less furlers can work with practically any assymetrical light air sail.

On an average cruising boat the combination of a cruising code zero and foil-less furler is about 25% more money than a cruising spinnaker and sock.

If you're not familiar with foil-less furlers, here's some information that may be useful. You may need to cut and paste these links into another browser window.

Gennaker & code 0 furlers - Facnor

We use the continuous line version Endless line gennaker & code zero furlers - Facnor

The most popular size furler we sell is the FX-2500
http://www.facnor.com/uk/products/ge...eroandgenn.pdf

Check out the video clip in lower left - Asymmetric spinnaker furlers