One of the most important concern of any yacht owner are sails. Sails are the face of a yacht. Beautiful and fresh, they not only make the shocking impression at girls, who stroll near a yacht-club but also talk about financial possibilities of the owner. And good sail, as is generally known, is possible to sew only out of good fabrics. Therefore any yachtsman who respects himself must be able to understand fabrics, to pick them up for their yacht correctly, to estimate quality and accordance of this quality to their cost. In this article we will touch listed questions and give some practical advices.
There are natural (linen, cotton) and synthetic sail fabrics. The main advantage of sail made of natural fabrics is possibility to cover yourself with them at night during a hike, if they are dry. There are only troubles because of them in other cases. Natural sail rot and lose durability, if they are underdried, are uncomfortable in use when get wet, with time acquire a yellow-brown tint. Therefore natural fabrics are almost not used for making of sail now.
Wide public knows five types of the synthetic sail fabrics: dakron, lavsan, kevlar for basic sails, kapron, nylon for spinnakers.
It's possible to see, looking carefully at fabric, that it consists of two thread systems, unlike your sweater. Threads, going along fabric (along a roll) are called basis, and across fabric (across a roll) are called weft. Most dakron and lavsan fabrics have weft more thick and more durable, than basis. It means that fabric is intended for sewing of sails with the crosscut, when weft threads are located along leech. If you desire strongly to have sail with the radial location of cloth, the special fabrics are needed for this purpose. Kevlar is the ultrastrong and therefore ultraexpensive type of fabrics.
It is of common knowledge that dakron fabrics are made of dakron fibre, lavsan – of a lavsan, also as nylon is made of nylon polymer and kapron of kapron polymer. But just a few knows, that chemically dakron and lavsan, also as nylon and kapron are almost the same. Dakron and lavsan are polyester fibres, nylon and kapron are polyamide fibres. And all of these names are only trade marks of different companies and organizations. For example the name dakron belongs to the chemical concern “Dyupon de Nemur”. In general, dakron and lavsan
have the same raw material, but the product is different.
Lately bad quality dakron appeared at the market. Unknown skilled craftsmen (maybe China) add to the fibre glass threads which are considerably cheaper then polyester. Therefore practical advice is to consult the sail master, friends-yachtsmen and, maybe, even with a wife before buying fabrics for sails. A wife will suggest to look at the name of the company on a label first of all. Known and respectable companies are consider Polyant (Germany), Bainbridge (the USA), Contender (Holland) and some other.
So, what to begin the selection of fabrics of? First of all it's necessary to make a list of sails which are needed on a yacht. You need to specify in a list besides sizes strength of the wind, at which it is assumed to utillize one or another sail, and its purpose: for races or for the cruiser sailing. Another factor which influences upon choice of fabric is type of the yacht, centerboarder or keel, and its displacement. If you have difficulties with determination of yacht type, it's better to entrust with choice of sail fabrics to somebody else.
Durability of fabrics is straight related to their weight. It is customary to measure weight of the sail fabrics in grammes per square meter and ounces per square yard. The second unit of weight is more frequently used with most producers of the sail fabrics. Its English indication is Smoz, that is decoded as Sailmaiker's ounce (ounce of the sail master). This means that sail masters, unlike other humanity, have their own unit of weight. Coefficient of conversion from ounces in grammes per meter - 42,8. In other words, to calculate weight of fabric in grammes per square meter it is necessary to multiply weight of fabric in ounces per square yard by 42,8. If you are able to use calculator, this operation will not be a problem for you.When people talk about 8-ounce fabric, they mean fabric square yard of which weights 8 ounces.
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