[quote=bacho]Short answer. Your orignal sails are shot.
Long answer. The sail loses its shape. Look at the trimmed sail, does it look to have a shape like an airplane wing? A worn sail the max draft will begin to move back and resemble the shape of an inflated pillow case.
Sails can last a long time, but they loose shape rather quickly. Racing the F18, we see a difference in a single season. A new jib with good shape will likely really be beneficial to you club racing.
[quote=CatFan57][quote=MN3][quote] The downhaul became much more effective. The jib also had a slightly shorter foot for some reason, not sure what impact that has had technically speaking but she sails to wind like a new boat. Not saying spend $1000 or more on sails, but the bolt rope may be a could start[/quote]
Upwind, a larger jib is not really needed - think about all the high performance boats that have a self tacking jib (very small) - off/down wind size is king (those self tackers race upwind/downwind races these days and have a spin for the downwind leg)
it is pretty common for main sails, the boltrope and the fabric that wraps around the bolt rope to stretch in places and shrink in places too: making the bolt rope/luff to need either "releasing" or replacement.
I have had my bolt ropes resewn/replaced a few times in each of my main sails that are over a season or 2 old[/quote]
How do you guys determine when your sails are tiring or shot? Is it just assessment of their performance? Or is there stuff you can see just looking at them?[/quote][/quote]
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