J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Districts Western Great Lakes District Composite / Dacron Mains

At the May BOG meeting this issue was raised. There appears to be a good deal of momentum towards composite mains for the class. An email poll of our district shows very tepid support for composite mains & strong support for dacron. Of 7 replies, 2 are in favor of composite and 5 are in favor of dacron.

Comments to note include the following:
n
*I have both & I find dacron to be faster
*I am in favor of dacron but I do find the composite to last longer
*I am in favor of composite but I will continue to use dacron and I feel it is as fast & lasts longer
*Cost matters; ergo dacron

Interesting discussion!!

DT

Below is the proposal, as written by class co president Bill Kneller:
Main sail cloth proposal

Please review it and offer your opinion. Thanks.

Western Great Lakes District,

The last Board of Governers call included a level headed discussion about the pros & cons of allowing composite sailcloth for our mains. We are all well aware of the classic arguments either way. The newer information includes:

*Dacron weighs about the same as a standard composite sail except for cuben fibre which will be prohibited via the bagweight rule. All approximately weigh in the 30 to 36# range.

*The J/30 designer Rod Johnstone is in full support of the update - unequivocally. He loves what the class has done to keep the boat current and support his design. He enjoys the BOG calls. It is a privilege to participate with him.

*Unlike LMPHRF, there are other PHRF boards who enforce the dacron main for sailors who claim to be in OD compliance, since it's in our OD rules. So this rule is a hindrance to the class, in this odd way. Be assured that we are not letting PHRF sailors dictate our OD rules.

*It turns out that some of our class stalwarts unroll their Dacron main once a year for Nationals. Otherwise they sail with a compsite main anyway. If I can editorialize, does that make sense to require a special sail for Nationals?

*In our area, we have at least two boats who have sailed in otherwise OD configuration with a verbal waiver for their composite mains. I know that the Mac race J/30's (who we don't see sailing at OD regattas) have composite mains.

As a final point, I would like to make it clear that Dacron will continue to be legal, competitive and popular overall. In my opinion, allowing the choice doesn't really make Dacron suddenly obsolete.

This discussion has been very well considered by all interested J/30 sailors. I would encourage you to please back this proposal. However I do not have your clear support.

As your representative, I have logged 7 votes, not including myself. We have 3 voters clearly favoring Dacron

We had 2 more voters ambivalently favoring Dacron; total of 5 in favor of Dacron

We had 2 voters ambivalently in favor of composite.

The ambivalent votes look like this; "I have a composite main but I'm in favor of Dacron." Conversely we had "I suppose we should open it up to encourage participation but I prefer Dacron"

Of the five pro-Dacron voters, two of these have voted with their previous selection to race OD using a composite main.

Given the greater discussion points above, would you please consider backing the proposal.

I will take another poll of our District, and I will cast my vote per our wishes. Please cast your vote on this thread.

Yours,

DT

Please note:

Not ALL J/30s racing the Mac are using composite mains. I did NOT intend to convey that message.

I'd like to restate my opposition to the change in the mainsail material. I believe it's not good for the J/30 Class, and not good for individuals (like me) on a tight budget these days.

A new dacron main from North is $2389, while a kevlar 3DL is $4899. That's more than twice as much. The top level competitive life of either sail is about the same. Purely from a cost/benefit analysis, switching to unrestricted cloth does not make sense.

There are several other large classes that continue to use Dacron as their mainsail material. T10 and J/105 are two that are interesting. Dacron mainsails are not becoming obsolete.

For the J/30 Class this is a bad choice. Part of what the J/30 Class association tries to do is to continue racing these boats affordable. Having to buy a main that's twice as expensive as necessary does nothing to keep this affordable. Were I a member of the Tea Party, I'd be asking, "Where's the Beef"?

Should the class change to unrestricted mains, it would be reasonable for local PHRF committees to re-evaluate the rating of J/30 Class boats. The PHRF rating should change.

Finally, for those that race PHRF, they can do whatever they like. They can use a Kevlar main today without a problem. If they feel that their rating is incorrect, they can take it up with their local PHRF handicapping authority. There's no particular reason that they should be pushing this change on a class association which has been working well for 30 years.



Dennis Bartley
J/30 Planxty

Dennis does a good job of discribing my feelings on Dacron Mains - My vote is with Dennis
Awesome #243

Dell,
I'm in favor of opening the rules to use composite mains. Hallel has been using a composite main for 3 seasons in LMPHRF races.

As a side note, I don't think Dacron is inferior to composite. I use a composite sail because I got a really good deal on it. When I buy a new main, I may go back to Dacron.
Regards,
Bill

Hallel 88

Dell,



Just read your post regarding mains and I'm all in favor of keeping it dacron for the class sail. Also, as one of the regular Mac J/30's you refer to, we have always sailed the Mac and every other race for the past 16 years with a class dacron main - no composite.



Greg

Falcon 6019

Scoreboard:
Dacron 3
Composite 1

Clock is running. I invite additional input. Thank you for your participation.

Hi Dell,

My vote is for Dacron for many of the reasons posted in this thread.

Tom Heinrich
Hullabaloo
Hull 443