SailCare

[Carter Brey]

i know SailCare's re-resining process has popped up on this board before, but I'd like to bring it up to be kicked around again.

A friend has informed me that the folks at a major sail consignment firm "blanched" when he told them that SalCare had treated a pair of sails he was offering them on consignment. They took a sailmaker's needle and, in demonstration of their contention that the LaMauney process was tough on sail fibers, pushed it through one of the sails; there was a small but audible "pop". They said that this was a sign that the fabric was damaged by the process; a sail in good condition would have allowed the needle to pass between the fibers.

As a result of the combination of age, use, and the fact that the sails had been subjected to the LaMauney process, the consignment firm declined the sails.

I'm interested in CDSOA members' reactions to this, especially since I'm a past SailCare customer and was contemplating return business in an attempt to get another season or two out of my 24-year-old mainsail. I just blew this year's New Sail Kitty on a #1 Genoa.

Thanks,
Carter

[John B]

CB

Have you aquired a new vessel yet?

regards

John B

[John B]

congrats

[polyphemus]

Well, Carter's post is certainly not want I wanted to hear after my mainsail just arrived from Sailcare a few days ago.

From a visual inspection, my sails looks great and the customer service was excellent. However, I'd be interested in the more erudite sail scholars among the Board.

Sean

[tartansailor]

All new sails are sized, otherwise how does one explain the crisp feel and sound of a new sail?

The guy with the nail test proved what?. Nothing from my point of view, except for the only disadvantage of adding weight to light weight spinnakers, which you do not want to do.

Resizing an old sail improves its performance by smoothing the surface thus allowing air attachment at lower wind speeds. What this means that your boat will move sooner rather than later when the wind starts up again from 0 to 2 knots.

Resizing the sail extends the life of the sail by reducing friction between the threads, because they are bound up by the binder.

Another advantage is the UV inhibitors incorporated in the vinyl / malaic anhydride emulsion which further extends the life of the sail.

The B.F. Goodrich Chemical Company is the leading manufacturer of textile binder chemicals with a vast array of offerings, depending on the properties desired.

I do not know whose and what grade of binder Sailcare is using, but it would be interesting to find out.

The recommendation is to have them resized. Then you can better measure chords and performance to help you and your sail maker come up with optimum shapes for your sailing venue, if you choose to buy new sails in the future.

Dick

[s.v. LaVida]

We are VERY satisfied with our SAIL CARE redo of our main, which now has another 2500nm + on it.

The sail is the original main that came with the boat.

I'd go back to them in a heart beat!

Just need to put another 25 years of hard sailing on the new main!


Mike

[Ron M.]

I'm not up on the chemical complexities of the process Sailcare utilizes.
I do know that they took my tired and dirty sails and made them look and perform almost like new for many years saving me considerable bucks.
They have processed two suits of sails for me (2 boats), and I would'nt hesitate in using them again.
________
GM FOODS

[Ed Haley]

I sent my 135 jenny for restoration. The sail came back in beautiful condition. However, the leach of the sail where the sunbrella uv cover was attached had a pronounced cupping that interfered with sail trimming. I had to remove the uv cover to restore sail shape.

Even as we speak, a new uv cover is being sewn on to the sail as well as recutting the sail to a higher clew. Looking forward to trying it out in a few months.

[mahalocd36]

The only thing this tells me is if you want to bring your sails to consignment, don't mention they were handled by SailCare.

I contend that brand new sailcloth (hmm....I have some samples here....) would probably do the same thing. I'm not sure what they were trying to prove - they broke the coating with their needle?

We got lots of new life from our sails and wouldn't hesitate to do it again on a later set of sails. Probably wouldn't do it to these again - I think it'd be time to get new sails at that point. At that point we'd keep the old ones for spares probably, or heck, turn them into those bags made from old sails - get more money for them than from consignment anyways

[bottomscraper]

The sails had been done by Sailcare 2 years before and the buyer thought that was a big plus.

[Rollergirl]

The primary driving force of the sail is caused by the shape, not the finish.
For the same 200 odd dollars (with shipping) that the Sailcare treatment costs, the New Genoa Loft should be able to replace boltropes and leachlines, in addition to a judicious belly-tuck to move the draft forward. Whilst the appearance would not be improved, the performance certainly would.

After all, this is supposed to be a higher performance boat, right?

Bill

[Matt Cawthorne]

The main reason for adding resin is to decrease the stretch on the bias. The resin is very helpful until you overload the sail and break it down. Then you loose the good effect locally, and you can get baggy spots in high stress areas. By adding resin back you might just stiffen the material up again, but if you stiffen it up with a bag in it you may not be getting as much benefit as a new sail would have. If the sails looked like new it might at least have the placebo effect and make your sailing more enjoyable.


Not all sails had resin added. Hood used to make a resin free sail cloth. My sails are made of that material. At 24 years, my sails have good shape forward, but do have a pocket near the leech. I tried re-cutting the sail myself last year, improving the shape, but it is still not right.

I found that the first thing to go was the stitching. I re-stitched the sails in areas of high chafe at about 12 years, and re-sewed the entire sails about 5 to 8 years ago. I have twice replaced the Sunbrella UV cover on the yankee, once trimming the leach a bit to remove a few inches of beat up fabric.

When removing old Sunbrella I found that you can see through it to some degree. It seems to me that if you can get light through it, then the sails are being degraded sooner than needed. Perhaps a double layer cover for the main is in the near future.

Matt

[Carter Brey]

Thanks to all who responded. Much food for thought.

CB