How Old Does a Boat Need to be for Tanbark Sails?

[Doubleender]

I love the look of Tanbark sails.

I sailed with them for 26 years on my Frances 26. Especially appreciated them when I was in the fog.

[Sam Plan B]

It is always the flashy and colorful boats that get coverage in the sailing magazines. But one should not confuse flash with marketability. In decisions like sail color, many people go with the most widely acceptable selection. That makes for a wider market when selling the boat. In other words, it tends to preserve the value of the investment. Unfortunately it also tends to limit choices and makes for blandness. I priced a new set of sails for my Columbia 41. The cost was in the $5k range for a main and 150 genoa. For tanbark it would have added another 35%. In the end, I gave up on tanbark and am staying with white dacron. Besides, new shapely white sails have a certain aesthetic appeal. I will keep the color for a storm trysail and jib.

[capn_billl]

Too bad the OP bugged out.

Well I'm going to look into a pair for mine.

In my opinion if you have even a single piece of teak on deck the boat qualifies.

[zeehag]

would love to find a set for my ketch but pricing is prohibitive for me, and used dont happen without being blown out....

[bobconnie]

We had HEAVY Dacron Lug sails made localy in the PNW in the 70s for our Colvin, in a real dark tan bark. We loved them, so much easier on the eyes in the sunny climes! and as they age they get so darn pretty !!we used them for over 20 yrs (plenty of repairs and rebilding ) and they were on the boat still working when we sold her ! so at one time you could get GOOD tan bark sails!! why not now ?? must be some reason cus with all the new stuff out there for uv protection sails should be better now then 40 yrs ago ?? any ideas ?? just asking

[Cheechako]

Somehow tanbark sails on a Cal 40 just doesn't fit to me... maybe it's just me.....

[zeta]

Egyptian Cotton Creme is a beautiful color IMO.

Potter 19 Mainsail -Tanbark or Eqyptian Cotton Creme High Modulus Dacron

[benjiwoodboat]

1990... but ya gotta have a yellow mast too!!

[markpierce]

Originally Posted by Doubleender

I love the look of Tanbark sails.

I sailed with them for 26 years on my Frances 26. Especially appreciated them when I was in the fog.

Know what you mean. White boats and sails in fog are like asphalt-colored (gray) cars on the road: very stealthy: not a desirable characteristic if one wants to avoid collision. Here a Richmond (CA) Yacht Club member doesn't bother to use running lights or sounding horn on a cruise-out to/from Benicia.

[sailronin]

Early comments are correct. In the days of cotton, tanbark was a dye that helped prevent wet rot, it was developed for fishing nets. Dacron doesn't wet rot so now "Tanbark" is just a red dye applied. The top quality cloth didn't used to be dyed as the high performance boats didn't care for the look. With all the racing boats using exotics (Kevlar, laminates, carbon, etc) I don't what quality cloth is being dyed these days. I always felt that the darker color would be more prone to sun rot, couldn't prove that one way or the other. (I was a sailmaker in the 70s-80s so this info is dated now)