J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Mainsail options 2014

I have North Sails on my J/30 "Toy Box" hull 324, and am very happy with both the performance and the longevity of them.
Lets look at what you are comparing, not apples to apples in what different Sailmakers are offering. I am a North Fan, and make no apoligy about it.

First, all but North, buys their cloth form a jobber, a manufacturer that makes and then sells their cloth to who ever will buy it.

Second, North is the only sailmaker that finishes their own cloth, they impregnate the resign in the cloth and then finish it off to higher standards then others.

Third, North is the only sailmaker that has two patients on the cloth they offer, the Radian cloth that is a true radian cloth(the true strength is in the length of the roll, while others offering you a Radial sail, that will not hold up as well) my boat neighbor shows me just what I am talking about, with blow-outs between each seam.

Performance the North Cross-Cut Mainsail has won more National Regattas than anything else. That said with the introduction of the North Radial Warp Oriented Main, I believe it will offer more performance due to the fact that with the radial design, the sail will offer less elasticity and you can get just a little lighter sail.


Not to Mention that the Mains built in New Orleans have been a consistent Regatta winner over time.

But if you are looking for a Durable non One-Design mainsail, the North 3Di would be the way to go.

This is what I believe, read and know, My two cents.
Neil

Many of those prices for Cross cut dacron are apples to apples. The DP 280AP and 300SF are comparable cloths to ND78HA, other than the North reportedly has less resin.

My North sailmaker actually steered me away from Radian as he thinks for the size of the boat and my purposes it's a "better-buy" to go with the standard NorDac. Tri-radial cut may not have the advantages in a mainsail that it might in headsails.

I have no allegiance to a sailmaker, but I am leaning towards North for my needs in this instance.

I wouldn't buy a 3DL... ever. I've not been impressed with them other than break-neck speed out of the bag. The boat I most recently crewed at length with had a carbon 3dl main and it was deteriorating rapidly for whatever reason. If you want ultra light and fast, sure, but they've got the life-expectancy of tinfoil. YMMV.

In contrast, I had a set of Tapedrive gold on a previous boat and they held up remarkably well. If money were not in my decision making paradigm, I would definitely go that direction again. I think the silver main quoted is a nice sail, and would live a long and happy life compared to some of the others.

If you are not going to do any OD racing, I would recommend upsizing your main roach. I went Code 6, and almost regret not going even bigger. I have a UK Powerhead dacron with two full battens up top and I could not be happier with the performance gains and the immediate impact of fine tuning the shape on boat speed.

The bigger main shifts the wind ranges of your headsails and actually brings the #2 in to play much more. This spreads the wear to all three sails, and actually allowed me to reduce my #1 to 155 which improves tacking speed.

The extra sail area on the main also adds canvas for the downwind which is very helpful. So in the end, I have the same rating, more downwind sail area (which is the J/30s weaker skill) and the same speed upwind.

did the code 6 hit the backstay more? Think it would be similar for a North spec?

I added a flicker to the backstay and changed the wire to 6 m/m amsteel blue no longer any problem with the main snagging while tacking in light conditions.

Jim's modification is ok for PHRF but not class legal for One Design per class rules
5.8 Standing Rigging may not be altered in material, design or added to except as herein provided.

It definitely hangs up more yes, but it is still worth it. I do a lot of shaking of the backstay in really light airs (2-3 kts). Still worth it though. A backstay flicker is also on my list.

before changing the backstay material I used the steel wire and it worked ok with the flicker.