J24 main would fit if you cut 500mm off the luff

Hi I've got a few second hand head sails you can have, came off my tophat 25 so should be an ok size. I've got a number 2 and 3 they're yours if you pay mail cost from Melbourne
Cheers

If its not to much trouble would you have pics for those?

Hi mate I've got a triton 24 and chasing some sails

For comparison sake.
about 3k for full battened Main with 2 reefs and hanked headsail.
in good Dacron cloth.

I just bought a new main for a Columbia 22 from FES - c. $750 delivered.

FWIW.

Tim

Gaudian said..

Purfler said..
I just bought a new main for a Columbia 22 from FES - c. $750 delivered.

FWIW.

Tim

I am also looking to replace the sails on my folkboat, main & jib, and asked for a quote to FES for a cruising pair of sails. How is the quality of these sails? Just thinking of dacron sails, nothing fancy.

I haven't had a chance to fit it yet - looks OK. I chose the slightly higher spec 5.93oz Challenge Premium High Modulus Dacron. They were good to deal with. Measuring properly is vital, I had the assistance of another member here which was much appreciated.

Tim

Not sure if I want to get into this debate?
But I am a sailmaker of 35+ years. I run my own loft these days after working with larger groups so am completely flexible about where and how I can make sails.
There are 4 components in a sail manufacture a bit like making a cake with eggs, flour, milk and sugar, go short on one of them and you affect the product.
In sails similar with Design, Material, labour and profit!

Design - I have no idea what others use but our sails are done on Smar Azure software.

Material- Assuming all is equal here. Although I know of some companies who use basic Rip stop nylon ( for drop sheets etc) for spinnakers not actual sail cloth. Beware of quoting, exotic names like high-performance and premium plus are actually budget cloths.

Labour- the big one, in terms of transparency, we make most of our sails completely in house, others sewn offshore and finished here and some made complete OS. For our larger sails we do utilise a couple of Sri Lankan sail lofts. They are both top end factories in terms of staff, machines and quality of life. We could outsource to cheaper facilities in China or Bangladesh where labour is cheap and inconsequential. But we choose to use a better facility and are quite transparent about our OS manufacturing and supply links in our quotes to these places.

Profit- This is the interesting and flexible one, we are all in business to make money. Our income allows us to live our lives and I can assure you we don't hide away gold bricks from sailmaking. We regard ourselves as honest and transparent as above. Always reluctant to drop our profit to a point where we are just supplying a sail. We can offer a discount and take out some extras .

Regardless, just wanted to explain set up and thoughts from a local perspective.

Bananabender said..
I'm sorry I do not believe this was a debate of who makes the best sails.
The PO was asking about sails for his boat for a low cost and asked about the quality of FES .
I was able to purchase new for less than secondhand and was quite clear why I went down that path.
I'm sure your not insinuating FES use inferior cloth etc.
By all means highlight the dangers of buying from overseas .
I have read your cut and past a couple of times on other sites and in all honesty believe you would be better served by outlining the advantages of shopping locally. Eg. I always bought my sails from Hood loft Melb and Col A would deliver them to the boat and ensure I was happy with them. Personalised Service.

Your reply has a bit of terseness about it, apologies if you misconstrued.
I was not starting a debate, they tend to get out of control on forums like this.
I actually think the FES sails are well sewn and neat finish, we do get a bit of work fixing engineering issues with the budget online sails which can be frustrating.
I never said FES use inferior cloth but they use a lot of the low end ranges, like the Challenge High Performance mentioned in the quote, as the blurb from challenge goes " enables the sailmaker to make an economical and inexpensive sail". So I did point out the monikers like supercruise, high performance, offshore cruise and premium plus are actually the cheaper ranges from the weavers. Plus I have been told anecdotally by sailcloth manufacturers that 1,000s of metre of seconds grade material gets soaked up by some of the online lofts? But what happens to it, I don't know.
I was trying to highlight the dangers I have seen from buying overseas.
I did write this information for another forum and did cut and paste it, as I thought ( possibly mistakenly) that it was relevant to discussion.
I try and make a policy of not spruiking my own business on forums and other people's social media pages.
I have been a victim of this with FES, who went through and put their website details in the comments section on my sailmaking business blog page, which did annoy me!

Bananabender said..
Thank You for your response. I respect your knowledge am well aware of your recognition in the sailing (racing) community . Your articles on
sails are always informative. I could be wrong but putting your sails on my little boat would have been almost like wearing RM's to play footy with the kids.

Thank you and have a great day.

I suggest you go to the challenge sail cloth web site read up on them and research each cloth relative to your needs . The performance cruise has been superseded .
BTW a Cunningham added on main will cost USD20
Dont forget GST.
get comparative from your local sailmaker

Just saw this: www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/230685064161937

No idea what it would cost to alter.

Tim