Aren’t you changing the boat? Get new sails!

Changing the sails on your boat is like replacing the engine in your car. So if you have decided to replace your old sails and make new ones to renew the “thrust” of your boat, it is useful to take stock of what the sailmaker market offers today. A general overview allows you to understand where technology has gone today in the area of sailmaking, but more importantly it helps you understand what the sailmaker can do today to design the sail tailored to your needs. We are obviously proceeding on a different plane than the megagalactic projects of the America’s Cup and VOR, where there are incredible resources in the field, aiming to pull the design to the limit to design the sails of the future. We are in everyday life, in which the sailmaker has to deal with the production, technologies and materials that enable him to build a certain type of sail. We asked Fabio Vitali, sailmaker at Elvstrom Sails, an expert in practical sail design and construction since 1979, to guide us on this journey. “People who have a boat should understand what is behind the construction of their sail. And be aware that renewing the sails can be a way to breathe new life into the boat with a custom-designed project”-he explains. – “Today, the sailmaker’s life has improved; I started making sails by laying a string on the ground to mark the outline and then unrolling horizontally cut fabrics over it. The sails were designed parametrically. Today, however, we have computerized programs at our disposal, which have revolutionized the way we work by being able to minimize error rates not only in terms of shape, but also in terms of structure.” Find the full article in the December-January issue of The Journal of Sailing.