We had the pleasure of working with Peter Mills on completely new mainsail designs for his Freedom 40/40. Peter wanted a high performance main with a huge roach, but he also wanted the durability of a cruising sail. A tall order to be sure!
Photo's are worth 1000 words, so this article is very short. Look at this photo: What you see is an incredibly big roach setting perfectly in a 22 knot Newport late afternoon sea breeze. Don't you wish you were aboard?
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What is not so easy to see is the development that went into the design of this sail, and the cloth itself. To set such a roach without distortion requires precise panel alignment, the right three-dimensional sail shape, and the right cloth. Our proprietary Design/CAD/Cutting system took care of the first part, Dimension Polyant worked with us to take care of the cloth end. At our request, they built a special custom laminate utilizing the E 18 scrim with K49 Kevlar fibers, added an Ultraviolet protector to the laminating adhesive, and covered both sides of the fabric with a light weight taffeta. The Kevlar gives this sail the low stretch necessary, the UV and the taffeta on both sides provides the ultimate chafe and UV resistance. The ultimate long life high performance Freedom sails! Call us to see how we can make a big difference in your Freedom's performance.