North Sails-Sri Lanka?

[PerryD19]

Is anyone familiar with the North Sails made in Sri Lanka? Is there any difference in quality with them vs. the sails made in the U.S.?

[sneuman]

I don''t know about North Sails, but if you want cheap, good quality work, Rolly Tasker in Phuket, Thailand is the place to go. I live in Thailand and just picked up a storm jib there for half of what it would have cost me even in Hong Kong.

[sneuman]

... and the workmanship is excellent.

[WHOOSH]

Perry, I purchased some Cruising Direct sails that are North branded. They use Nordac proprietary cloth and they came from the Far East, altho'' I''m not sure their origin was Sri Lanka (maybe Indonesia?).

If that''s the source you have in mind, I''m lukewarm with the results. The shape and cloth are excellent, but the workmanship had a few flaws and CD was totally uninterested in hearing about them. Their pitch that you can take any problems to a local North loft ended up being more ''theoretical'' than real. Some of their hardware was also clearly inadequate (e.g. plastic slugs used with the top full battens), altho'' we use our sails offshore which isn''t their typical customer, I would guess.

Still, I got sails that made a huge difference on our performance for a very reasonable cost, so I did at least get what I paid for. Since then, I''ve had to upgrade the hardware and can''t complain (well...too much). <g>

Re: Rolly Tasker, I''ve heard (all 2nd but at least not 3rd hand) mixed reviews. I bought a mizzen staysail from RT and believe it was excellent value. OTOH it''s a simple sail and I found the regional reseller (in Ft. Myers) to be less than impressive when I started digging into all the details one must consider when building up a ''real'' sail (e.g. a mainsail). Cruisers who''ve actually visited the plant and purchased sails were impressed with the hi-tech operation but had mixed views of the end product. That was a few years ago, now.
Jack