440: Standard full height mast foresail dimensions

[coldar1]

Hi all. I need a new foresail for my 2006 built Lagoon 440 which has a standard European mast. We are using Lee Sails (China) who I have had reasonably good feedback on, but we are unable to state the square meterage of the standard Incidences foresail, and importantly, the cloth weight. Our sail has easily withstood up to 25 kts without furling, but its now stretched, suffering some UV damage, and needs to be replaced. Any assistance including confirmation of the I and J dimensions. Fingers crossed I can get some definite feedback...INCLUDING if anyone has increased the leech and foot dimensions to add a little more square meterage and have still ended up with a good sail without loosing any ability to point reasonably well.

[Blue Stocking]

I'm sure you know this, but it is quite common for " standard " rigs to be non-standard. Don't know why, but they are. Sail makers ,for this reason, don't take anything for granted. For my new working jib, I hauled luff and leech cord to the height I wished, and tied off a foot cord at the wished for tack position. This gave me flat plane dimensions. Sail maker make cutting size adjustment for future stretching. A good sailmaker will send you a drawing showing horizontally, every 10% of luff height, where they intend to put the draft with leech and foot lines unloaded. Increasing the area of the sail will affect Cof E and CLR balance, and therefore sheet trim.

[coldar1]

Yes, I have become aware of the non-standard V standard and there is no such thing. We think we can add about 1.0M / 3' to the leech and about possibly the same to the foot without creating an over loading situation. Can you offer any guidance on cloth weight for what I'd like to think is a robust sail capable of handling winds between 20 and about 23 kts before reefing. If we have slightly more square meterage, we can always furl a little earlier until we can prove its performance.

[GordMay]

Europe mast: I = 17.23m and J = 4.25m
2.4 Page 7 ➥ http://www.cata-lagoon.com/site_agen...rop_440_uk.pdf

[davecalvert]

It is true, even production boats differ slightly on rig and sail dimensions. It is always best to measure the rig and boat rather than an old sail or even a sail plan when buying new sails. If extra area is desired, best to have the sailmaker determine how much and where this can be done. Most have measurement forms on their web sites to simply fill in the blanks to give the info needed to design a new sail.
This is where a good sailmaker will be worth the extra from an overseas company who designs and builds the sail. In many cases, sailmakers, not familiar with Multihulls, will use cloth too light and stretchy to reduce the cost. This may mean replacing a new sail much sooner than expected. The loads on a 44 ft cat are quite high, almost too high for even the best Dacron sailcloth to handle. Best to use a quality Dacron in the 10 oz. to 12 oz. range or a lighter body and two ply leech.

[Jim Cate]

]

This is where a good sailmaker will be worth the extra from an overseas company who designs and builds the sail.

Coldar, please listen to this man!! Dave IS a sailmaker and knows his stuff. The pleasure of the low price of a sail built by proxy will fade as it ages and becomes shapeless.

From the nature of your post, it is apparent that you don't have much knowledge or experience with the design of sails. For you, an hour of conversation with a sailmaker, on board your own boat, talking about how YOU use the boat would be immensely valuable. You would learn a lot, and would likely end up with a far better sail for your usage.

Good luck with your decisions.

Jim