| Loose footed sails
The Sailmaker I'm dealing with is a third generation craftsman. He mostly deals with the racing agenda. And he was saying his customers replace their loose footed sails around every two years. I think what he was trying to relate to me is that the light air situations is what does the most damage. The constant downward pull on the clew, rather than the whole footrope, stretches the leech deforming the roach causing loss of performance. I would imagine that a sail of 9 or 10 oz. material would last a lot longer. But loose footed sails are lighter weight.
Over here in the Puget Sound area we seem to have fairly light air (10 knots -) or strong gusts (25 knots+). A favorable wind of 15 knots just doesn't last but a couple of hours. But for now, I guess I'll just stick with the foot rope.
I do appreciate all the input, Thanks............DelmarRey
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