The mainsail of my Nacra 5.7 is ripped, and now I'm looking for a replacement sail. It's my first catamaran, I love her but she's an oldie, so I don't wan't to spend to much money on her.

I haven't found any second hand 5.7 sails, but it looks like the Nacra 570 (newer type) and F18 sails are compatible if I compare the masth lenghts and have found some cheap 2nd hand Nacra F18 sails. Any experience with those sails on the 5.7? Do they fit and sail well on the 5.7? Or better order a new 5.7 sail?

Thanks in advance

You need a boomless rig so an F18 is out. The 570 should work since they are pretty much exactly the same boat. A 5.5 or 5.8 sails might also work, but both have 241 ft2 of sail area where the 5.7 has 230 ft2, so they may be longer in the luff which would be a bit of a problem. You could probably get one of those recut to suit though. A 5.0 sail would also work but you will lose almost 30 ft2 of sail area.

Regards,
Dave

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Dave Bonin
1981 Nacra 5.2 "Lucile"
1986 Nacra 5.7 "Belle"
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
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I bought a very good condition used 5.7 sail, I've seen a couple around, had to fly out to California to get it. I've only used it a few times, I'm keeping it for a spare in case my other one blows up!
There were a few on the classifieds here, one back in Dec for a main & jib. It's on pg 7 or 8 in the classifieds, look for Jenna Meyer.
Dan Berger also had some 570 sails, give him a call, he has lots of stuf for sale here.
I don't know how a 5.8 sail would fit, it's 9 sq ft larger, but there is one also in the ads.



Edited by Edchris177 on Aug 16, 2011 - 06:03 PM.

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Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

Thanks for all the advise, a quick update:

We couldn't find a decent second hand 5.7 or 570 mainsail. A new one has about one month delivery time and because we didn't want to wait that long, we did an experiment with an Nacra F18 mainsail.

The Nacra dealer here in Holland had a nice second hand Nacra F18 pentex mainsail for us that we could try/fit it on our 5.7. With full downhaul there was not much space left, but it fits! We bought it and installed a boom on the 5.7 (easy+cheap to do). The boom is a bit low, but tacking an gybing goes pretty well.

A small note: we bought our cat second/third hand, therefore we don't know if it still has the standard/original mast. The guys from Nacra were suprised the F18 mainsail fitted, and thought it was not the original mast(lenght) so be careful if you're planning to do the same. They told us a 570 sail won't fit a standard 5.7 either, because the 570 has a slightly longer mast.

Thanks to Nacra Holland for all the help & tips!



Edited by rop on Aug 21, 2011 - 08:33 PM.

If I remember correctly, my 5.7 mast is just shy of 30'

--
Hobie 18 Magnum
Dart 15
Mystere 6.0XL Sold Was a handful solo
Nacra 5.7
Nacra 5.0
Bombardier Invitation (Now officially DEAD)
Various other Dock cluttering WaterCrap
--

I bought a G-Cat Main sail for my Nacra 5.7, it works pretty well. It could have been about 18 inches longer, but it worked fine and still sailed it in the Gulf Of Mexico once a month. I do have it for sail now for sale it works great because you have plenty of visability under it probably lost a little speed but worked well, until we cracked the hull in October. I am parting most everything out. Did just buy a Nacra 5.8 on Saturday. The weather was perfect when sailing the Nacra 5.7 we were experimenting both of us hiking out for the first time because we had just got everything how we wanted on the boat. I sliped a bit and we turned in the wind and the boat capsized. The hull filled up with water real quick and we coulding rite the boat. The next thing I knew there where 2 life gaurd jets skis we where 2 miles off the coast and they dragged us in from a rope tied to the front crossbar. Things weren't bad until the hull it a sand bar since it was 4 feet under water the mast stayed striaght out the whole time. We got the boat back and on the trailer just a big crack towards the rudder. Another retired old boat.