Just curious as you have bought a new Spitfire spi recently. Are Hyde Sails still building them, and have the luff now been reinforced with a heavier cloth or a spectra line? There was some talk about the luff stretching badly some time ago and I was wondering it this still was an issue or if it was a just a specific batch of spis?
Hi Rolf
A couple of years ago now the cloth was changed to a more 'slippery' type. The problem was mainly that the downhaul line was rubbing on the cloth, particularly on port hand drops and the friction was wearing little 'burns' in the area below the bottom patch.
The very early Spits launched the kite from a bag on the tramp so this didn't happen. It only showed up when the chutes were added.
The class and builders agreed to supply all new kites in the new cloth, older kites could still be used and a big discount was offered if anyone wanted to upgrade to a new one.
It sorted the problem and the kites wear much better and slip into the chute better too <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
Hydes still supply the sails.
gary
