Racing Sails

[stam22]

I race my O'Day 34 on Tuesday nights. Unfortunately, we blew out the mylar genny on the last race of the series. I need a new one for next year, but the price is unbelievable.
I'm going to get a price on replacing the bottom panel on my old one, but I have a feeling this may be a harbinger of things to come.
Does anybody know if there is a market for used racing sails?
Thanks.

[anthemj24]

Bacons or the Sailwarehouse have a fair number of used sails, although a word of caution with used sails, racers tend to use them and abuse them, so finding competitive used ones may be difficult. The exception is highly competitive one design classes where someone may use a set for one regatta and sell them.

[Faster]

We got a lightly used set of J 105 sails that were a close fit for a good price... dacron main and pentex jib... very satisfied.

[puddinlegs]

Honestly, if you're just Tuesday night beer canning, why not just get a tri-radial pentex or other form of dacron sail? I'm guessing a brand new one would be around $2800 from a smaller local loft. A Kevlar of the same variety, add 1k. Add $800~1k to either of those numbers if made by a loft that likes blue.

[CorvetteGuy]

Try Summerset sail they have new and used, but there are many used racing sail sites with gently used sails

[zz4gta]

There's not going to be a market for an O'day 34. Sorry.

What's the price on another Mylar sail? Don't replace the bottom panel, mylar shrinks with age, the entire sail is probably shot, you'll be throwing good money after bad. A tri radial dacron laminate might be a good compromise, but buying used racing sails usually isn't a great idea. Unless, as said above, it's a J24, Melges 24, etc.

Get lots of sail quotes, and you might be surprised at what you can talk your way into.

[blt2ski]

I would not do a dac/mylar laminate, like Norths Norlam or equal, these do not get the mileage that straight dacron gets, or for that matter, My Ullman Fiberpath is doing better after many more tacks, miles etc than the Dac/mylar sail I have.

I would look at a sail made with Dimension Polyant in the DP or GPL cloth, may be equal to a triradial pentex mentioned earlier. Or Ullman has a CAL sail, a panel sewn scrim laminate with a cost just about a GOOD dacron sail. I paid about 1700 for a 140, a dacron would have been about 1500. I could find some lofts as low as 1000 in dacron for my boat. My Fiberpath was $3K-3500 IIRC. $$ are shown only as examples, my boat is 5' shorter.

I use the CAL as a daysail/cruise sail, and occasional race, pulls really well, better than a dacron, not as good as my FP tho. From a cost standpoint, the CAL or a DP/GPL/pentex tri-radial sail frankly would be your best $$ options.

I do know one person with a sister boat to me on the east coast, that looked at Bacon's website almost daily, after a few months, did find a pentex sail in great shape for about half the cost of a new on.

Marty

[stam22]

That is a lot of useful information. Guess I have some calls to make. Even though it's just beer can racing, Dacron just won't do. You can't keep a crew happy without being competative. Thanks for all the help.

[hellosailor]

You can also try Atlantic Sail Traders in Florida, they make new sails and sell used ones. Nice folks to work with.

The problem is, why did someone get rid of the old racing sail? Right, either it was shot, it wasn't flying right, or, what, the sail is perfectly good but the boat sank so they have sails to get rid of? (Unlikely but possible.)

AST has some glue-seamed foresails that are pretty competitive and not a whole lot more than "good" used sails. Try asking them about that, although glue doesn't seem to be as durable as sewn sails. (3-4 years instead of 5+)

The problem with used sails, is that even with a money-back guarantee, you lose two-way shipping if you return them. And that can really take a bite these days.