By and large, I've decided I'm not that fond of Odyssey or the similar cloths.  I'm going back to good old acrylic for SibLim's sail and the hell with the chafe!

I agree with you about high aspect ratio.  I've always preferred it, but on the other hand, I like a short mast, too.  When I was designing my rig for Fantail, I was persuaded by the fact that 5m alloy tubes were available, that using these was a good plan.  (Ever the thrifty soul, I didn't want to waste the alloy by cutting them short).  While Fantail sails very well and the sail is fine to handle, I am going back to HAR for my next sail.  It's horses for courses and, there being so few junks being actively sailed and even fewer people reporting on their experiences, we are still all learning.  Thank heavens for these fora where our experiences can be shared in 'real time' rather than via four-monthly magazines.

David (Kiwi).  When I spoke to the Odyssey people, they told me that the shiny side was supposed to go away from the sun!

Graham - sorry to hear about your issues and I know that cold feeling of horror only too well.  I don't think Odyssey is ripstop - I could easily extend the tears in the damaged section of my sail.  However, the patches seem to have done the job.  If you want to repair your sail without taking it off the mast, I recommend having your lazy jacks set up so that you can lower the sail onto the deck.  (You may need to cast off the mast lift, too.)  This makes it a lot easier to work on and you can pull battens part way out if needs be. 

I've used contact adhesive before now, for patches.  Two drawbacks: it's often a dark colour and shows up on a light sail and/or darkens over time.  It makes sewing, later, very hard work.

Like Arne, I favour adding a wide doubler to the luff and leech, to add to the weight and to slow down the rate of fluttering. I increase the width of this doubler in the top panel, to add extra strength.

Unlike Arne, I think that there is a very strong reason to add graduated corner patches, of increasing size, particularly to the peak of the sail, where all the vertical loads are concentrated, but also to the throat area. I believe that the breakdown that both Annie and Graham are seeing is due to overloading of the Odyssey cloth, rather than UV damage. My current sails are of Mustang cloth, but I've used Top Gun for the yard pocket. Sufficient doubling of the Odyssey in the top panel should be enough, but there might be an argument for using heavier cloth here instead.

For repairing small holes, I glue on patches with clear polyurethane. In Australia, there's Selleys Polyurethane Bond, in other countries "Seam Grip" can be found in camping stores. Dampen the sail, apply urethane to the patch, and use a hot iron to press the patch on against a firm flat piece of wood. That way, the urethane sets in minutes, sufficiently well to be handled, but leave the sail undisturbed for a day before hoisting again. 

The shape of La Chica's is neither van Loan nor Hasler McLeod but a hybrid. The body is standard but for the top panels the angle of the peak is altered so that the mid point of the yard falls under the halyard block. The reason for this being variable is because the sails have different amounts of balance (the amount that the sail projects forward beyond the mast), in general, the more balance you have, the lower the peak angle and the less balance you have the higher the peak angle. If you get this point right, the sails essentially position them selves. Get it wrong and you can really struggle. I learnt this the hard way when I did the rig for Carl Bostek's Aphrodite. The sails are also of moderate aspect ratio which also helps them set better. One change I did make last summer was (on the main sail) to move the standing part of the halyard 10% of the yard length aft. This has resulted in the peaking action of the halyard being strong that the THP has become redundant. I have not removed it yet but it now does nothing and I will remove it this summer. I will also be doing the same to the foresail.

As for the construction, the luff has 4 layers of reinforcing at 200mm and 100 mm plus all the corners. The leach has six layers at 300, 200 and 100. This summer will be our third year and so far no issues what so ever. The cloth is Mustang which is coated on both sides and is slightly heavier than Odyssey III but is otherwise a similar material. The sails are built using the "shelf foot" method.

Well, I made it to Broken bay, 35 miles in a 20 knot following wind and 2 metre seas.  As expected, my homeward bound stitches failed due to the weakness of the surrounding cloth and a hole about 300mm x 75mm appeared, but my very strong boltrope/ leech tabling held the sail together and the sail did not tear right across, as I feared it might. 

The good news is that this appears to be the only seriously weak patch in the sail, an area of about 400mm x 100mm, near the leech, just below the peak, so I won't have to scrap the sail after all!  Just a panic attack when it happened at dusk yesterday, on the eve of a passage.  It may be caused by the tension on the THP, but I'd be surprised if it is, as my Arne type sail does not seem to have very high loads on the THP and my top panels are almost flat cut. 

It looks like chafe, but that is also puzzling as there are lots of other places in the rig, such as where the sail is pinched between the mast and the battens, which I have always worried about but which seem fine.  I have been wrapping a preventer around the bundle near that point and hauling the sail bundle outboard when at anchor, tensioning it against the sheet, to stop the bundle squeaking against the mast when rolling in a swell (don't you hate that!) and also to expose the solar panels.  Perhaps this has somehow pinched the sail and worn that patch tissue thin.  Whatever, I will just glue a big patch on either side and carry on. 

I am pleased to say that the rest of the sail appears to have plenty of life in it.  Odyssey is a light, stretchy material and my cambered panels set nicely in a light breeze, but I have had trouble with eyelets pulling out if it and a few straight-stitched seams pulling apart.  I have reinforced these areas with extra stitching and it seems to hold together. (Next time I'll use strops instead of eyelets).

For offshore work I'd like a sail with vertical, triple stitched seams and good reinforcing patches.  That way, if you get a few holes here and there they won't matter.  With my sail, where each panel is made up from one piece of cloth, if you do get a hole it can take out the whole panel.  I like 5 oz Dacron, as it is strong and chafe resistant, but I have read that it is more subject to chafing where it is pinched on a junk rig than softer materials.  I am still a babe in the woods with this rig, so don't have any firm opinions.  I do have a beautifully built flat Dacron sail on board which I will probably refit if my cambered sail falls to bits, which would give me some experience with this material.  But I love the performance of my cambered sail so won't change it unless I have to.

Could I ask both of you, Annie and Graham , if your sails have a strong load-bearing boltrope all around them? If yes, I struggle with seeing how the luff (now throat) hauling parrel could overload the sail cloth. To me it appears that the THP/YHP combination (plus a light help from the Hong Kong parrels) simply offload the sailcloth when set up. My sailing has been too easy and coastwise to be any proof why my present sails have not had these problems.

When my Malena's three top panels finally started to fall apart, in 2009, I am pretty sure it was a combination of sunshine and flogging that caused it to happen. I never covered the sail (but tied up the bundle after each sail), while the new owners, since 2000 never tied up the sail either.

Arne

PS: Malena during the rally in 2010, with holes in the 3 upper panels. I remember the cloth, once very soft, now felt stiff and paper-like on the worn places. That sail lasted for 15 years, but at 59deg north and in gentle coastal sailing I bet even that nylon canvas would last 3 - 5 times as long as in Australia.

PPS: Annie, I think the main reason for the light loads on sails like Badger's sail much comes from them being of high aspect ratio. That puts the CG of each sail closer to the mast and the parrels forces needed are light. My sail on Broremann (AR=2.15) was by far the most well-behaved I have had, despite it being set with a 70 degree yard and only about 10% balance.