Just wondering, is X-ply just monofilm with the ply fibres in it, or is it a totally different material?

Does X-ply suffer from UV like the monofilm is meant to? (Guess this depends on the answer to my first question.)

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Originally posted by decrepit

Yep, same stuff with fibres.
The mono film obviously degrades just as quick, but it's not carrying any load, so the sail doesn't "explode" like a straight monofilm one will. The sail will last a lot longer, but eventually the monofilm will just fall off the fibres.

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Wow, exploding sails.

I bet that's a lot of fun if you're way out the back.

How about a sort of shade cloth thingy that you could clip to your sail to keep the UV off it while you rested on the beach. Is the UV problem bad enough to warrant something like this?

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Originally posted by decrepit

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Originally posted by Harrow

Wow, exploding sails.

I bet that's a lot of fun if you're way out the back.

How about a sort of shade cloth thingy that you could clip to your sail to keep the UV off it while you rested on the beach. Is the UV problem bad enough to warrant something like this?

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I guess that would depend on how many of their $800 sails have exploded.

Well they don't actually explode, but I had a very minor wipeout, when I came up I had 2 whole panels.

Shade cloth's a good idea, but would your average sailor think it's "cool"???

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They nearly do explode, I watched my mate almost reduced to tears when his newish v8 pretty much exploded when downhauling (not rip most panels went up the sail). Xply is slightly more UV resistant than mono, for good UV resistance use metalized xplys if you can find them.

Sail covers most people just use tarps that way you can peg it down to stop sail blowing off, the other thing is several people's sails can fit. You used to see this quite a bit at races years ago when people would rig multiple sails and leave em on the beach. Just make sure you have no downhaul or outhaul tension as masts do explode in the heat. Some people have used car covers also.

Well there you go. Yet another of my great ideas stolen before I even thought of it.