J105 Mainsail Options

[J Rex 0]

A sail builder looking to sell me a mainsail for my J92 is recommending a dacron crosscut sail, saying "that it is what the J105s use for their OD mains".  Although true, I suspect that they may use it for cost or consistency reasons rather than it being the better sail vs exotic material or even a tri-radial dacron sail. 

Questions: 

If allowed, would other than crosscut mains be preferred (faster)? 

Are there any J105s not racing OD that sail with mains other than the OD crosscut dacron?

Any input is appreciacted.

Wayne

[JL92S 426]

I raced a 105 a few years back that had a membrane string sail from Dolphin that was a fast sail but didn’t have a cross cut main to compete against. For sure you’ll always have someone saying “why spend all the money on a fancy mainsail when you could lose the benefit with a bad tack”. In my opinion you don’t always need a membrane sail to be competitive, a good tri radial sail in a laminate such as DP Carbon Sport or Contender ZZ Aramid/Carbon will be good enough to make you competitive and modern laminates have a better longevity than they used to. I would make sure your sailmaker has a good reputation for designing fast sails otherwise you may want to look towards one of the bigger sail manufactures with a history in designing fast sails for J Boats 

[Wet Spreaders 306]

J105 has to use Dacron for OD, but the construction can be crosscut or radial. North and Quantum are crosscut. My recollection is that the Doyle main was radially cut down low a few years ago. I think that the top of the sail was crosscut, but my memory is a bit hazy on it - only one boat in our fleet used Doyle.

I'm skeptical that a string sail is faster than dacron out of the box, but I suspect that it would be faster for longer and lighter to handle on the boom. I wish we would shift to string sails for OD because I sail a lot of double handed and rolling, removing and stowing the racing dacron main is painful after a day on the water short handed. 

[Raz'r 5,199]

On 1/15/2022 at 12:46 PM, J Rex said:

A sail builder looking to sell me a mainsail for my J92 is recommending a dacron crosscut sail, saying "that it is what the J105s use for their OD mains".  Although true, I suspect that they may use it for cost or consistency reasons rather than it being the better sail vs exotic material or even a tri-radial dacron sail. 

Questions: 

If allowed, would other than crosscut mains be preferred (faster)? 

Are there any J105s not racing OD that sail with mains other than the OD crosscut dacron?

Any input is appreciacted.

Wayne

Sails should be the same out of the box, but yes, one of the new membranes would hold it's shape, longer. Depending on how often you sail, racing, etc, maybe the dacron would hold it's shape a long time?  If you're racing though, one of the technora or carbon membranes will be the way to go.

[sailman 412]

1 hour ago, Wet Spreaders said:

J105 has to use Dacron for OD, but the construction can be crosscut or radial. North and Quantum are crosscut. My recollection is that the Doyle main was radially cut down low a few years ago. I think that the top of the sail was crosscut, but my memory is a bit hazy on it - only one boat in our fleet used Doyle.

I'm skeptical that a string sail is faster than dacron out of the box, but I suspect that it would be faster for longer and lighter to handle on the boom. I wish we would shift to string sails for OD because I sail a lot of double handed and rolling, removing and stowing the racing dacron main is painful after a day on the water short handed. 

I would agree with that statement with the exception of an all carbon sail.

[SailRacer 123]

No to Dacron on J92.

Yes to longevity and shape keeping (whatever that is called) with a laminate sail.

UK City Island built/finished a few with good results for Hull # 14. Get on the forum as there might be older sails in very good shape.

Sail Safe!