Sail makers in Asia -Lee Sails vs. Rolly Tasker

[ErikFinn]

I got quotes from these two sail makers, Lee Sails in Hong Kong and Rolly Tasker in Phuket.

Prices are about USD 1,550 from Lee; "Short Battened Mainsail of 8.8oz USwt Challenge dacron, 13.5m luff x 4.4m foot with 2 reefs"

and USD 2,000 from Rolly Tasker;
"Mainsail Standard Offshore, 8 oz US Dacron Crosscut, Luff 13.5 4.4 Foot, Area 33.26m2, 3 reefs"


Prices are including delivery, but not including duty and taxes (which I hope to avoid as "Ship in Transit")

Anyone familiar with these two sail makers in Asia? Are they about the same or one better than the other?

Can the price difference be explained by differences in quality/material? (surely not by just reef)

Thanks,
Erik

[ErikFinn]

Could anyone with any knowledge about Lee Sails or Rolly Tasker please comment?

[Amnesia II]

Originally Posted by ErikFinn

Could anyone with any knowledge about Lee Sails or Rolly Tasker please comment?

Don't know about Lee Sails but I have used Rolly Tasker in Aust and heard 2nd hand about Tasker in Thailand being excellent value and quality....infact I'm heading that way myself next year.

[Capn Morgan]

Hi mate

Have a look at this thread:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ils-30951.html

There are lots of comments on one of your sail makers. If I may suggest, talk to One Sails in Singapore and get a quote from Sailmakers, Sail Design, Sailmaking | Island Planet Sails | Free Sail Quotes, Sailboat Sails, Low Cost Sails who is very helpful and also here in CF.

Best

[Weyalan]

If you are planning on doing much more than harbour cruising, I'd be going for the option with the 3rd reef.

[ErikFinn]

Thanks for your replies guys, looks like there was some mixed opinions in the thread linked above, but generally I suppose Rolly Tasker appears to offer an ok product for the money. I'll search more about Lee Sails and also contact the third sailmaker linked above.
Erik

[dirkdig]

We have 4 tasker sails and they are all great

[jim767]

We have 3 new sails from Tasker on our 53' ketch, well made at a good price.

Good luck

[rigormortis]

I've had 2 sails made by each outfit in the past 3 year. Asymmetrical spinnie with sock and storm sail with ready bag made by Lee and 100% furling jib and 2 reef point mainsail made by Tasker.
Lee made a poor sock for the spinnie with a hoop too small in diameter and poor line arrangement--always fouled. I got a new sock made by Tasker. A proper one. The ready bag made for the storm jib had poor quality twist closures and half corroded away in no time. Sail itself is good.
Taskers sails are serving me well after 1 1/2 years.
If you get to Thailand go to their loft. Quite impressive and a good chandlery as well. They also do standing rigging, make their own ropes. Happy with service, price and quality.
I had Lee sails in 1978 for a pacific crossing and they worked fine. You pays yer money and you takes yer chances, I guess.
Pete

[DefinitelyMe]

I recently got a very competitive quote from a company called 'Far East Sails' based in Hong Kong. Not sure what their quality of construction is like but the guy that gave me the quote was very professional and the price was very good. Might be worth looking them up as well.

[Kestrahl]

Both are budget cruising sail manufactures. From what I gather Tasker increased their prices at some stage which now makes them more expensive (used to be similar in price). This is perhaps unjustified, value for money Lee is superior.

[Jubilee39]

I have had Tasker sails for over 10 years, sailed from the Caribbean to Phillipines and very satisfied. After a lot of hearsay about Tasker currently I went with Hyde Sails in the Phillipines. I went out to their loft and found they also make sails under different logos, US, Australian, and Asian. One that I remember is Neil Pryde. All seem to be good quality

[DonaldT]

I purchased 4 sails from Lee Sails in about [2008] or [2009]. I had recently become the inhabitant of a 10 tonne Dansk Jagt replica built in 1974 (nee circa 1810).

My experience was that Lee Sails tried to also sell me sail covers, although I said nothing about sail covers in the request for a quote. (I was also able to ask the wife of the previous owner of the vessel about this - as the previous sails were from Lee Sails. I was aware there were no sail covers when I bought the vessel. But Lee Sails claimed to have made a full set of sail covers for the previous owner. The mystery was explained when the wife told me the husband gave the sail covers to a charity recycling store as none of the sail covers fitted the sails.)

My further experience was that there was a 10% low season discount for buying at that time of the year (which could have been about May or June ?).

Another plus was that they were very patient in clarifying with me by e-mail exactly what I wanted.

On the down side, they wanted payment in full in advance.

Further, both up and down, you can pay by credit card, but in that case they make a surcharge (currently 3% extra).

Further down, it took about a month more to make the sails than Lee Sails estimated it would take.

So the whole thing took about 3 months or so from start to finish. I suggest you do not leave your sail replacement to the last minute, think ahead.

Once the sails were complete, I made a request that they photograph them and send me digital images of the sails before shipping the sails out. But they refused to do this. I thought it was a reasonable request. As it turns out one sail departed from one I specified in one (fairly trivial, but noticeable) respect. Not that they got the size wrong, instead one eyelet was missing.

I think I have Rolly Tasker sails for an Australian Rainbow class 12 foot scow, but they were made in either 1972 or 1973. (Still okay I guess, they have not had much use in all that time, they now sit in bags at home.)

[gjordan]

Whatever sailmaker you use, go with the third reef. Much better set than a trysail, and easier to use. Just my opinion. ______Grant.