when I made enquires for new dacron cloth, the coloured stuff only went up to 4 or 4.2oz. the small roll of 4oz that I have is a tad light for ,say, a 4m mini sail .it really needs to be 4.5-5 oz cloth. I havent done much with some of the composite materials or monofilm. the kevlar sail I did recently was the first that Ive played with ( it was a big old piece of sailcloth.)
Im using a radial cut/vertical cut as a sailmaker "unmystified" the sailshaping process for me when he explained how he achieved a sail shape with the different 'broadseams'.
most of the sails Ive since made mimic or derive from that original lesson on a beach.
you also need to consider the surfaces that people are sailing on to
If i was making a paddock bashing sail for say, Lachlan, it would be a bit longer in the boom(1.6?) same for some of these "new saltlakes" and softer beaches that some of the guys are now discovering. that would give it a bit more "low down " grunt, rather than top speed
the 4m sails that i make from bukibag material take 5-6 hrs of work fom start to finish , working from a set of templates. in dacron that would be 7m cloth @ $24.00 ($168.00)battens and tensioners $70.00?, freight $50.00, leaving $62.00 for labour ie $10.00 ph.
even ciscos price is probably a bit cheap , probably since hes using old stock cloth
Can't quite remeber but think my sailmaker was in the same range (around 650) when I asked him about a 4m Blokart sail made in the white reinforced material...not the monofilm. Almost 12 months ago, and he loves sailing been in the business almost longer than I have been around!!
