Here Here. Well said. Don't waste your money on reconditioning and buy new if at all possible.
Sent from my IPhone Read On Jan 29, 2010, at 5:03 PM, "Judith Blumhorst, DC" <[email protected]> wrote: Here's my $0.02 -- feel free to ignore it. It's worth only as much as you're paying for it ;^) A C27 is a lively boat, and a boat with lovely manners when properly trimmed, across a broad range conditions. She's got great manners when properly tuned, trimmed and suited. She deserves good sails. Personally, I'd buy a new or almost new dacron sail if I were in your situation. I don't race, but I still want nice sails. Nothing makes an old boat perform better than getting new sails. Really good used mainsails are hard to find. Only extremely competitive racer get new ones every year. Most used sails are very tired. Sail cloth shrinks in some places and stretches in others (depending on the way forces are distributed on the sail), and that tends to distort the sail as it ages and is used. To an experienced eye, it's easy to see the changes in sail shape. Personally, I think reconditioning old sails is a waste of money. They look new, but they certainly don't sail like new. Coating old cloth won't get rid of a baggy sail in which the draft has migrated aft and gotten deeper. Reconditioning doesn't replace all the sun-degraded thread. I'd second Phils advice - Try the Catalina factory, and take a look at North Sails Cruising Direct. That assumes you have an OEM rig. (Check the measurements for the luff, the foot and the tack offset, just to be sure.) IMO, North doesn't make any "bad" sails and they have the best sail technology around. They have a pre-fab cruising mainsail for the C27 that's quite nice for $775., with top quality construction and materials. Or, if you're in southern Ca, you might talk to Chip Buck at Point Sails. He has made a sail or two for me over the years. He does nice work, and makes replacement sails for a many rental fleets. Here's a ling to North Sails Cruisiing Direct website, where they sell pre-fab Catalina sails: http://tinyurl.com/ybb5nge . Fair winds, Judy B http://www.blumhorst.com/catalina27/catalinahomepage.htm CAT27 M - Catalina 27 Mainsail Catalina 27 Standard Rig Mainsail Our Catalina 27 Mainsail is made from 6 oz 4800 series Dacron and comes with one reef, telltales, leech line, and a drawstring sail bag. Cloth Wt.: 6oz Luff: 28.66 Leech: 30.09 Foot: 10.5 L/P: -- Item # : CDI-11-09-001 Price : $775.00 QTY: [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
