Improvements

We at North Sails are always looking to improve our product.  After a season of hard work we have looked at our 2009 sails and how they wore out and then made some small changes to our sails construction which should have a big improvement in the way the sails last.

Moth sails take a real hammering when rigging and carrying boats out to launch.  With the sails already built from tough base sail cloth I think a moth mainsail is going to wear out from time spent rigging rather than time spent sailing.

Below is an image of the new light weight rubber bumper on the head of the 2010 sails.  This provides better chafe protection than thick webbing we previously used which tends to get torn up on concrete.

The batten ends, especially on the top battens wear out quickly and risk having the orange tension line which loops over the batten wing tips wear out and break.  All battens now have rubber bumpers on both sides of the batten pockets as in the image below:

With the stiffer masts comes higher downhaul loads.  Some boats are even using 8:1 downhauls.  Originally our sails had press rings, then we switched to webbing loops on the luff sleeves.  However, after more testing we decided to put the press rings back in the sail.  With the high loads we have added a web loop for safety to ensure the ring does not pull out of the sail:

To make the sails easier to rig up we have added side zips to the cams.  This is a popular feature which can really take the headache out of rigging up.  All luff sleeves are now made from a more durable Dacron than the 2009 sails which had a square weave low stretch Dacron which was prone to tearing.  Additionally the front seam on the sleeves is now reinforced with a Teflon tape to ensure that the mast will not tear through the seam and add a little more ruggedness when your sail decides to flip itself over on the pavement while rigging!

With the winter weather starting to take a break in the US testing is about to begin in earnest with hopes of further improvements making it into the product.

Below is an image of the 2009 model V8 on a Southern Spar in 12kts TWS.  The new 2010 sails are slightly more draft forward throughout with more front% (Slightly more knuckle) in the lower sections and more reactive to downhaul in the head for when the breeze comes on.

Please feel free to drop me a note anytime with questions on our sails.  We are always open to suggestions and possible improvements in our product.