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The MiterCut Dacron Genoa
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Full Batten Mainsails account for 80% of the mainsails we build today. Full battens permit maximized area (roach) and the battens do for mainsails what the miter does for genoas--maintain the shape. Many racer prefer just the top two batten full, the lower two nearer to normal---for slightly more control over the shape of the bottom of the sail. For most sailors and cruisers, all full battens make a faster, longer lasting and easier to set sail (our own boats, and America's Cup boats, too, are rigged with all full battens). All our full batten mainsails include Battslide, Rutgerson, or other devices to tension and transition the load (batten to mast) as standard equipment. We also make available the inclusion of Strong or Harken mast track systems at a package price. All mainsails come standard with shelf foot, tell tails, etc. See Special Features and Standards section. |
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Our Tri-Radial, true asymmetrical is the fastest headsail you can put on your boat for very tight reaching to wind far aft of the beam. This sail is designed with each of its 30-plus panels individually shaped for its greatest depth forward, like a very full genoa, with its leading and trailing edges projected outward, instead of inverted. As a draft-forward sail, it will practically go to weather, but when on a near run, its projected luff swings out to the clear-air side of the mainsail for excellent performance without a pole. We usually supply this sail with ATN Sleeve--the absolute best sock made (and we know, because we made the first one in the 1970's). Of course, we also make very fine, fast, symmetrical spinnakers for racing.
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Most of Our Radial sails for cruising and club racing are constructed of "cloth" using one to two mils of Mylar/Dacron sandwich or woven warp-oriented Dacron/Pentex and Dacron/Kevlar. With few exceptions, this is the most expensive sail material to use, but delivers the highest performance potential. It is also 50 to 100% more expensive than woven Dacron and contributes to the higher price of these sails. Such sails lack the long-term durability of woven standard Dacron and are for sailors who don't mind replacing them more often.
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Special Features and Standards Built Like A Mack Sail . . .
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How Does a Sailmaking Firm Without Branch Lofts All over the USA Gain a Nationwide Reputation for High Quality? | |||
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By not compromising |
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And here's one improvement that will be found on every cruising boat sail we make~~~from 5 oz. to 15 oz., mainsail, jib, genoa, staysail, storm sails~~~every Dacron sail, and most of our radial laminate Spectra, Kevlar, etc. sails. |
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| The drawings illustrate our new standard two-ply leech system. There is a 3" to 5" wide length of sailcloth inserted under the leech tabling and leech line. The leech tabling and the extra ply are then triple stitched down to body of the sail~~~the entire length of the leech. We are doing this as an aid to improving the durability and life of a sail where we have always known sails suffer most: leech fatigue. Of course we have always double sewn our leech tablings and centered the leech line away form the very edge of the sail (where most sailmakers stick their leech line, with only one row of stitching) to avoid leech tabling "cracking", but now we're adding the two-ply-advantage to our long list of
Mack Sails' Standards and Features.
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© Copyright 1995 - 2008 Aztec Systems Corporation. In association with Mack Sails. All rights reserved. |
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Forty years ago
virtually every genoa made for performance sailing was miter cut, like
the drawing at the left---whether constructed of cotton, nylon or
the then new Dacron. The miter in these sails was not simply a benign seam
to hold the two halves of the sail together, but rather, a very
sophisticatedly crafted avenue into the heart of the sail, that when done
right, could anticipate the natural stretching and locking of the fibers
in the cloth, guaranteeing that the draft would stay forward and the after
area of the sail would stay lat and clean. Sailmaker's reputations were built on the execution of their miters---perhaps none more so than Hood
sails of the 1960's. (Many hard-used Hood genoas can be found today that
look and perform better than their two or three year old counterparts from
"modern lofts"). But, by the 70's mitered genoas were being
pushed into obscurity by the pressure of modern economics (the miter is
labor intensive) and production requirements (it takes trained sailmakers---not
kids hired off the street). Sailmakers were also eager to produce sails
that were "fast out of the bag" . In reality, such sails were a
little less fast each and every time used. The fact remains that material
does stretch, no matter whether it's new modern Kevlar, Spectra, Technora,
Mylar and certainly Dacron-only cloth---and it's the responsibility of
sailmakers to deal with the problem. In exotic materials the solution is
to radiate the panels out from each of the load corners of the sail. This
is simple with CAD-CAM, and competent because laminates are much more
stable than woven- only cloth. But, woven-only Dacron is the odds-on
favorite for cruising sails: lower cost and the incredible durability of
15-20 years in many sails. So, If the material is so durable, why not
execute the design and construction to hold the shape in place as well?
Bravo, the miter cut---especially for roller reefing genoas---which is
practically every genoa built today. Other sailmakers simply make
cross-cut genoas and shrug their shoulders about the consequences. We take
the extra time and skill (and charge a 10% premium) necessary to build a
truly long-lasting, stay-flat when reefed, genoa---for serious cruising
performance. Some sailmakers offer radial cut genoas from woven-only
cloth; but we do not, because the breakdown is rapid and the resulting
washboard looking sail is something we would not want our name on.
