Laminated sails are a step up from dacron. Woven polyester (a.k.a dacron) sails are a common choice for cruisers Laminated sails Or budget may be the determining factor, and a 50-80% savings is nothing to sneeze at. If you’re planning on doing bluewater cruising you may want to buy new, as we did, because we didn’t want to be faced with replacing our sails halfway through our trip. If you’re weekend cruising, they probably won’t make much of a difference, maybe getting you to your destination 10-15 minutes earlier on a half-day sail. If you’re a competitive racer, new sails might be quite critical, giving you that winning edge. Whether or not this matters to you will depend on the type of sailing you’re doing. They did noticeably improve our boat’s sailing performance, allowing us to point a bit higher and eke out a fraction of a knot more boat speed.
In our experience, new sails were nice to have but not life-changing. These numbers might sound dismaying, but it’s worth investigating what “performance” means and how much it matters to you. For cruising laminates these figures look to be more in the 70-75% range. How much shorter, depends on the type of sailcloth.Īccording to North Sails, woven polyester sailcloth has a performance life that is less than half of its ultimate life. Never use a sail for so long that it risks breaking while underway.Ī performance life: how long it will retain an aerodynamic shape, allowing you to point higher and sail faster.Ī sail’s performance life is generally shorter than its ultimate life. It’s worth pointing out, that sails have two “lives”:Īn ultimate life: how long it will stay in one piece. So, in reality, you’re saving more like 68%, which still seems like a good deal. If my sails cost $5,000 new (with 100% life left), you’d think that a “good” set with 75% life left should cost should cost $3,750. We’ll use Atlantic Sail Trader’s used sail ranking system as an example: So, to find out if my $1,200 sail set ranked as “good” is still a good deal, let’s take a closer look. These rankings can differ from broker to broker. Most sail brokers have ranking systems that describe their sails as being anywhere from “Like new” to “Good” to “Useable”. So, when you’re shopping for a used sailboat sail, it’s important to look closely at how the used sails are rated. You would have been much better off spending $5,000 on new sails that last 10 or more seasons (i.e., $500 per season). Imagine paying $1,200 for used sails that only last one season. They also become more prone to tearing as the material degrades. They gradually stretch which makes them less efficient airfoils and impacts performance. After all, used sails are “used” and presumably don’t have as much life left in them.Īs sails age, they lose both their shape and structural integrity. You might be wondering if a used sailboat sail will save you money over the long run. That’s a 76% savings! Do used sails save you money over the long run? I recently priced out a similar set of used sails in good condition and came to a total of $1,200. While pricing varies by size, material, and condition, you can expect to spend a fraction of the price that you would on a set of new custom sails.Īs an example, when we were preparing our Dufour 35 for bluewater cruising, we spent $5,000 on a brand-new main and genoa (a hefty chunk out of our cruising budget).
This used spinnaker got us almost all the way across the Pacific How much do used sails cost?
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