David wrote:
That's interesting, Paul. That would make Top Gun 9 my first choice for all but the biggest sails, as Top Gun 11 is known to perform well over time, whereas I noted quite a lot of chafe on my Mustang sail after coming all the way down the Pacific.
A good point, David. Most sails last a long time when used for only occasional weekend sailing, assuming they don't get UV damage: before a sailcloth can be considered truly suitable for offshore, junk-rigged boats, it has to be tried for many miles, which is difficult to do coastal sailing. (In all the time I had
Fantail, I sailed fewer than 5,000 miles, including the long passage from Nelson!)
You will recall that there was a great deal of enthusiasm for Odyssey, until people actually started using the sails and found the material simply wasn't up to the task, offshore. On the other hand, although no longer popular, Sunbrella and similar are very long-lasting, tough fabrics, well tested. Pinholes from chafe don't spread and Badger got 80,000 miles out of her original suit, which would still have easily stood up to another ocean crossing. For most enthusiastic weekend sailors, that is a lifetime's sailing.
It worries me a little, that there is often great enthusiasm for fabrics that haven't really been tested in an ocean environment. Weathermax is another example: people are using it happily and it surely is a pleasant fabric, but I should like an honest critique of the material from someone who has sailed at least 10,000 miles with it.
I think it would be very interesting to compile a list of the fabrics used on the sails of junk-rigged boats that have crossed oceans, together with the owners' comments and have it available as a .pdf.