Sailmakers

[kentwm]

I am looking for recommendations/contact information for local sail lofts. I have already been in contact with C&C and am interested in contacting other local lofts about sails.

Thanks,
Kent

[MaryM]

Well, you also have UK Halsey, Quantum, North and Banks sails in the immediate area.

[ChrisK]

As six different people, you'll get 6 different answers!

I would heavily consider the amount of customer service you'll get. They'll all come out and measure your boat (hopefully) and talk to you about your options and what you want to do. The sky is the limit on your material choices, of course...like everything, speed costs money.
If you're looking for durability (say, going cruising to far away lands for a couple of years) they should be able to recognize that as well and not try to sell you the latest greatest go-fast carbon wonder material.

Is the sailmaker going to follow up post sale? Aka. take the boat out with you on a test sail to look at the final shape? Maybe go as far to fine tune the rig to optimize the sail shape of your new sails...
With the cost of a new set of sails, I would expect that from a sailmaker.

[Bee]

This is all well and good Chris, but I wonder which sailmakers have someone with the skill set to do this?  Even within the big three, there's no guarantee that there is a person with the knowledge to tune and set or even cut the sails properly for your boat.  I am aware of some interesting sails that were actually illegal when measured against certain class rules that were supposed to be the fastest sails ever.  Not much fun to buy one of those just to have it thrown out at a major regatta or have to have it recut to satisfy the current rules.

Sure PHRF is a different matter, but I am also aware of at least one set of sails on a popular local PHRF'r that had significant problems with the way the sails were cut.

Too many factors in this high-tech business.  Very easy to go wrong.  Finding a sailmaker that will work with you on this is the proper advice, but no guarantee to satisfaction.

[JASpithill]

Kent - If you'll send me a personal message I'll be happy to share my experiences with sailmakers in the area.  Jack

[STuma]

Kent,  you can email me at texastuma at comcast dot net; and I can give my opinions as well...  My suggestions would depend on what type of sailing you want to do.

Chris and Bee give some good points, but tuning the rig is usually an additional charge, especially if it is a race boat.  I do "on the water" tunes and I start at 4 hours charge.  There are a couple of guys that will go on the water with you, with the new rags, and show you how to sail the boat to them.  With that being said, you can probably get better information from forums and talking to people who have sailed the boat well.  Maybe one thing to do to start, is take a camera and take vertical pictures of the sails.  On the jib, lay on the deck along the foot and have the crew adjust luff tension, car location and tightness while you take a shot of each adjustment.  Do the same for the main along the boom.  You can download them on the computer and see a lot of information. 

There are some really good sail lofts in the area, it just depends on how you are sailing, what level of customer service you are expecting and what price you want to pay.