Ripped Main Sail

[Flybyknight]

Does anyone know what tears first; tack or clew; when a main is overloaded?
assuming that both halyard and out-haul are tensioned correctly?

Dick

[Faster]

Since the clew and tack panels are heavily reinforced, sails rarely "tear" there. Most often a seam gives out or a panel will rip across itself. Another key area is the so-called reef points (the little patches with grommets for tying in the reef).. if they are tied in too tight they will fail as they are not designed or intended to actually take any loads under sail.

A sail (or the stitching) has to be pretty rotten to simply tear. Usually there's been some abuse, overload, mishandling, catching on a spreader or something during a bad jibe.

[sailingdog]

The reefing points are usually reinforced a tiny bit with a diamond of cloth to make up for the hole there...but in general, the seams are the most common place to see a sail fail.