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Sails Radial or Tape drive

3K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  uri 
#1 ·
I am going to buy a new mainsail for my Elan 40, mainly for club racing, solo races, and some more important races ocasionally. I had withthe boat the original sails 2002. I Switch my head sail already for the regatas by a UK tapedrive Pentex base, and kept the original for cruising. Now after mesuring the main I saw that the sail is small....so I decided to switch it and I have two questions.
1- I am checking basically between Quantum radial Pentex sail and UK Tape drive Pentex sail. The design will be 1 full batten...maybe two. For what I read the radial sails loose their shape much faster than the Tape drive sails...Is that true ? Are the sails similar or there is an advantage from one construction type over the other ? UK claims that the sails will keep their shape longer...? Quantum uses different Pentex weights? I guess to coorect the strech problem but does it really work ?
2- The second question is about the E for the main, The E that is marked on the boon is about 7 cm smaller than what the actual sail strectches when flattened. My question is ? Shoul I increase the E on the new sail and get more penalization but a bigger sail , or should I kept the original E and make the sailmaker work in the new E....
Good sailing !
 
#2 ·
We''ve been pretty happy with our tape-drive genoa. As it was explained to us, the tape holds the sail to its designed shape, and is very strong. Ours is "optimized" for about 12-25 knots of wind. It will keep that shape in 40 knots or 3 knots of breeze. The pentex or other film simply keeps the wind from blowing through the tapes. The sail is now about to start its fifth season, and the kevlar is showing signs of UV degradation. I expect we''ll need a new one shortly. For our Pentex main we went with a local sailmaker, and have been even more pleased by their close attention to detail and
customer care. The main is going on its third season and the boats racing us still complement us on how it looks as we pass them. It gets more use than the genoa, since we have several headsails. We''re hoping the pentex lasts a little longer than the kevlar, and so far it''s holding up well.
 
#3 ·
Well ok thankyou my main will be Pentex and I hope will laast longer than 4 years they said between 4-6 years. So you decided for your local sailmaker "radial?" Do you really think the tapes on the UK system do they work? To me makes sense....
I have the same discusion under racing "sorry" if you want to switch there.
 
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