Hydranet Sailcloth on a Jib- Durability?

[MrsMeltemiWind]

Hi All-
We are looking at replacing our Staysail jib- Self Tacking - roller furler on our new (to us) boat. Because of the size and self tacking nature, it is likely to be a heavily used sail.

I’m replacing a laminate that is moldy and extremely well worn.

I’m getting mixed reports how well the Hydranet will last over time (stretching equally as bad as Dacron). But I don’t want to spend a fortune on my first sail on a new boat until I get to know the boat and sail.

I’d love if anyone has had experience with Hydranet and how well it has held up.

Smooth Sailing,
Lisa

[fxykty]

We recently replaced our self-tacking jib. It had about 65,000 miles and 10 years of temperate, sub tropical and tropical miles from Europe to New Zealand. It was built by Delta Voiles (France) of HydraNet in tri radial design.

The material itself was still strong, but the stitching was starting to go. The leech was hooked and the body of the sail had stretched such that the furled shape was really poor, despite the foam luff inserts.

We are on a catamaran, so the leech loads are higher than on a similarly sized monohull.

We briefly considered and quickly discarded using HydraNet as the material for our new jib. It is a very expensive material that effectively performs very similarly to high grade Dacron, so why bother? The cost is similar to using a high-modulus laminate material.

Longevity - definitely a HydraNet positive

Performance - HydraNet not much better than plain Dacron

Cost - one of the most expensive materials

[MrsMeltemiWind]

Thank you so much for the advice. We are getting a quote of about 5K for Dacron, 8K for Hydranet, and 11K for a laminate.

What fabric are you moving to if not Hydranet?

I hear that Laminates especially for heavy load sales in the tropics are quick to mold and delaminate. We are only cruising, not racing.

If Hydranet we’ll use Quantum Sails. As we are on the East coast of the US right now.
If Dacron or Laminate - high probability we’ll look at North - though I’ve seen mixed reviews here about North.

We welcome any other advice or thoughts. And by the way- Amazing boat you have!

Lisa

[Muaddib1116]

The listing information claimed my boat's sails are Hydranet radials made by Ullman in 2016. They seem to be in decent shape, but my furling main's leech seems pretty stretched out to me. It's very possible a previous owner wasn't very good at using the mast furling and stretched it out prematurely, I don't know. I don't have enough experience to recommend one thing over another, but RAN Sailing on youtube recently got sails made from Nautosphere, which is similar to Hydranet, but woven differently so that they are more ideally constructed crosscut than radial. I doubt the material is cheaper, but the crosscut construction may save some money.

https://www.nautosphere.com/sailcloth

[Caleb_Grey]

Originally Posted by MrsMeltemiWind

Thank you so much for the advice. We are getting a quote of about 5K for Dacron, 8K for Hydranet, and 11K for a laminate.

What fabric are you moving to if not Hydranet?

I hear that Laminates especially for heavy load sales in the tropics are quick to mold and delaminate. We are only cruising, not racing.

If Hydranet we’ll use Quantum Sails. As we are on the East coast of the US right now.
If Dacron or Laminate - high probability we’ll look at North - though I’ve seen mixed reviews here about North.

We welcome any other advice or thoughts. And by the way- Amazing boat you have!

Lisa

If going hydranet check out http://www.qsails.com/
From what i hear from my amel friends they are excellent sails made in Turkey and even with cost of shipping to us still way cheaper than others who are most likey sewn in China.
Theres something like 150+ super maramu who use qsails, so if they are good enough for that snobbish cultist group they must be ok jk i love my amelian friends

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by MrsMeltemiWind

Thank you so much for the advice. We are getting a quote of about 5K for Dacron, 8K for Hydranet, and 11K for a laminate.



What fabric are you moving to if not Hydranet?



I hear that Laminates especially for heavy load sales in the tropics are quick to mold and delaminate. We are only cruising, not racing.



If Hydranet we’ll use Quantum Sails. As we are on the East coast of the US right now.

If Dacron or Laminate - high probability we’ll look at North - though I’ve seen mixed reviews here about North.



We welcome any other advice or thoughts. And by the way- Amazing boat you have!



Lisa

We ended up with membrane sails finished with heavy duty polyester taffetas on both sides designed and made by Zoom Sails. The materials and construction method is designed for humid tropical conditions. The cost was less than half of that quoted by local sailmakers. Give us a few years to report on their value.

[Joli]

Hydranet has held up well for us and we haven't treated them kindly. Our one laminate sail is delaminating. We sail between the East Coast and the Caribbean.