Sail Reconditioning; is it worth it?

OBX_6708

OBX_6708

New Member
Recondition a Laser Sail?

I'm going to re-ask my question in this thread is no one minds...

Could he send this sail off to have it reconditioned? ;

cleaned
ironed
re-impregnated w/dacron
 
Re: is my sail class legal?

OBX_6708 said:
I'm going to re-ask my question in this thread is no one minds...

Could he send this sail off to have it reconditioned? ;

cleaned
ironed
re-impregnated w/dacron
Click to expand...

With a sail that old, a careful handcleaning, yes.

Ironing at a low heat setting, perhaps.

To my knowledge, you can't re-impregnate a sail with dacron. Dacron is the fiber that the sail is made of.
 
Re: is my sail class legal?

OBX_6708 said:
I'm going to re-ask my question in this thread is no one minds...

Could he send this sail off to have it reconditioned? ;

cleaned
ironed
re-impregnated w/dacron
Click to expand...

A Laser sail would need more than that to be reconditioned. The main problem with the sails are that they stretch, and then the leach is loose and flutters, with a consequent loss of power. From what I recall that 49208 said, you can get a Laser sail recut and sewn. Also, I didn't think you could iron synthetic sails. Don't they melt?
 
Re: is my sail class legal?

I have hesitated to post a link to this company - because I am not
trying to solicite business for them - but I sent them the sails for my
Hobie 16 and they came back like they were brand new.

www.sailcare.com
 
OK; let's start a new thread on the topic of sail reconditioning.

OBX 6708 mentioned in a previous thread (http://www.laserforum.org/showthread.php?t=7073) that there is a company that will clean, repair (if necessary) and re-impregnate (with resin) used sails.
Here is the message:

I have hesitated to post a link to this company - because I am not trying to solicite business for them - but I sent them the sails for my Hobie 16 and they came back like they were brand new.
www.sailcare.com

Merrily pointed out that this process will not change the shape of a blown-out sail.

I briefly scanned the website, which gives quite a bit of useful info, and the price list. Although the price to recondition a Laser sail is not given, the charge for a Hobie 16 sail is about $100.

Thoughts?
Experiences?
 
Humm - that sounds interesting.

I have a sail I'd donate to the experiment ;-)

Would the class accept them?
 
Unless your sails are spotless - you can tell!

My Hobie Sails were old as dirt...and now they look like
Gerry Garica owns them!

THey still have that cool faded, tie-died look - but they
are as crisp as a brand new set of sails.
 
I think Sky means tell for purposes of being legal. If the sail is recut, which is the only way to recondition a Laser sail, you can see the seams if you look for them.
 
merrily is correct.
not to mention, when you recut sails, you are taking away fabric.
hence, less sail area = slower.

reconditioned sails may be crispy, but still are stretched out.
performance will not be enhanced.
 
The Laser class rules seem to allow "repair and preventative maintenance" of the sail as long as the essential shape, characteristics or function of the original are not affected.

26. REPAIRS AND MAINTENANCE
(a) Repairs and preventative maintenance to the sail, hull, deck, centreboard, rudder, mast, boom or any fittings and fixings may be carried out without violation of these Rules provided such repairs are made in such a way that the essential shape, characteristics or function of the original are not affected.

So it would seem to me that as long as you are just restoring the sail to something close to its original condition you would be OK. But be aware that rule 26(d) says that sail panels and luff sleeve cannot be replaced.

Having said that I have never heard of anyone having a Laser sail recut to rectify the way it stretches with age. Is this technically possible? And if so, is it cheap enough that it makes more economic sense than buying a new sail.
 
Recutting a Laser sail, would probably take a few hours, and my guess is a sailmaker might charge a few hundred dollars to do it - but the chance remains that it might not be legal, and it will probably not be identical to a new sail, even with reconditioning.

Compare that with running out to purchase a new sail which will definitely be legal, and will probably be as identical as possible to the average sail, and for a small premium, you get a better product.

Bigger boats frequently recut sails, but the labor charge to do it, several hundred or more dollars, is a much smaller percentage of the cost of a new sail - on a 30' boat a main might run $5,000 or more.
 
On the question regarding adding a coating onto the sail:
While it may make the material feel crispy or stiff again, it won't change a lousy shaped sail into a good shaped sail. Bias stretch is not really the big issue in the cloth used for Laser sails anyway.

On the question regarding re-cutting a Laser sail. It is fairly easy if you have sailmaking skills to re-shape seam(s), luff curve and even the leech (w/o making the sail smaller) to do things like change max draft and draft location, fit the luff curve to your particular mast bend profile, reduce leech flutter etc. However this is NOT legal on a new sail and it's easy to spot. Could you do it on an old sail and argue that you are only bringing the shape back to the way it was when it was new ? I think that can only be answered by a class measurer (although I think I can guess their answer would be no)

It would be an interesting debate though. Suppose sailmaker X offers to re-cut your 1 year old Laser sail to get it back into the same shape as a new sail for $70. Might be good for your wallet, bad for the builders wallet (less new sails sold) but is it good for the overall health of the class ?
 
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