3Di: Sails “with insight.” North Sails’ new revolution

The new 3Di sails designed by North Sails represent the latest milestone achieved by technical evolution applied to sails. The launch of a new, highly advanced product always creates great curiosity and expectation among the sailing public, who look forward to filling the docks with tales of “mythological” new boat performance. But let’s see where these new 3Di sails come from. Do you remember the black sails that Alinghi sported during the 2007 America’s Cup? That date was pivotal in the technological evolution of sails, almost as pivotal as the 1851 Cup edition when the Americans came to the race course with sails made of Egyptian cotton (more resistant to stretch and able to improve the angle to the wind by 5°-6°) instead of the classic linen still used by the British. The Swiss in 2007 had discovered how to insulate PBO fibers to make them a material for use in sail construction. North Sails was able to go a step further, using Dyneema fibers combined with carbon and aramid fibers to form a highly stretch-resistant composite that now forms the basis of 3Di sails. A revolution that thus concerns not so much the choice of materials (the evolution of which stopped in the 1970s when the first laminated fabric that allowed the use of high-tech fibers appeared) but the method in which these are treated in the process of building a sail. Therefore, we can summarize the philosophy that drives North Sails’ technological progress toward 3Di as a search for the best method to use existing materials. In short, a technological and innovative system for dealing with long-used high-performance materials. In the present case, the new use is to “break” the fiber structure into its basic elements: the filaments, which in this unstructured state offer the best of their mechanical qualities.

PROS AND CONS OF THIS NEW CONSTRUCTION METHOD

A 3Di sail can be defined as a rigid structure made from pre-impregnated unidirectional carbon fibers and customized to the needs of the owner, who can order a custom-made sail according to the characteristics of his or her rig and hull. These sails have certain characteristics that carry obvious advantages: they are rigid structures (more resistant to elongation) that hold their aerodynamic shape well by retaining more propulsive energy, they provide better stability in all gaits, and they are made of fibers that do not absorb water and can be oriented freely, depending on loads, at the points of greatest stress. Being able to place higher fiber density only where it is needed, even asymmetrically, saves on the material used and thus on the final weight. Find the full article in the April issue of the Journal of Sailing.

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