Mainsail - Tri-radial v. Cross Cut

We are ordering a new Main and I'm interested if anyone feels strongly, either for or against, tri-radial or traditional cross cut. I see the top 10 at this year's NA's were roughly evenly split (although yes I recognize 2 of the top 3 were tri-radial). I understand the benefits and drawbacks from a construction perspective but I would be interested if anyone has input they are willing to share on the performance and durability perspective keeping price in mind.

Brandon Forbes
Endeavour

I also noticed the influx of tri-radial mainsails. Photo from Spinsheet's Will Keyworth of Wildcat and Totaled Mayhem. Both North (and what appear to be same Genoas) but would guess sourced from different lofts. Also an Elvstrom tri-radial on Mondial. We have a cross cut main on Bebop appears to be the same as on Cannonball and Shamrock.



Happy with my new main but seems a bit fuller on the luff curve than my last from 2016.

We have one of the new north 3 dI mains on Judicious.

Hi, I am the owner of TOTALed MAYHEM. I spent quite a bit of time discussing sail options with our Annapolis sail loft in prep for NAs. My take...

I went with 7.4oz North-made Dacron. North claims their Dacron is better than Contender for Radial designed mains. I even spoke to contender and they agreed. I went with 7.4 for durability, the lighter option is not going to last as long. I did not go with the “oly” coating which makes the sail stiffer as it would have added more weight to the sail which I did not want for Chesapeake light air sailing. My understanding is that the price between cross cut and radial for North is nominal, as North uses their own Dacron for radial and outsources for cross cut. So although more stitching on the radial, the material costs them less, as they make it.

I feel the radial option allows you to tweak the sail with slight adjustments more than crosscut, especially as it ages. I had the same sail I bought new for the 2016 NAs. I used it for 3 seasons and it held up well. I will still be using it for Wednesdays for the next two seasons. The sail’s “crispiness” goes away quick, like after using it for two regattas. But the shape holds well. I have been very happy with our speed and point compared to those boats with crosscut. I’m not willing to “Downgrade” to cross cut given our performance with the radial main.

I do see that Wildcat’s main is not the same as mine. It came from a different loft. The panels appear to line up more exactly which I have always been told looks good but is actually not ideal. Not sure if that is correct or not. I see he has 1 more panels in the lower part of the sail, minimizing the size of the panels. I also see he has a “fake reef” meaning less reinforcement at the luff and leech at the reef and only two grommets and not 4.

Our jibs were also different, in fact we laid them on top of each other when measuring in. Mine is raw with extra protection on the area that overlaps with the rig. Wildcat’s appeared to not be a raw sail but a full endurance sail. Not sure if any performance difference, but I liked that the entry of the sail was lighter and reacted to backwinding quicker and clearer to the eye. Also wildcat’s genoa was about 5” longer in the leech, however luff length was the same. This appeared to require them to move the lead forward on wildcat more than Mayhem as seen in the pic above.

I hope that helps.
Doug

It does. Very kind.