Support for Mary
While I do not agree fully with all points she mentioned I can assure her that even some good racers prefer dacron of laminate sails. They are in a minority but they are very fast just the same.
Pretty much the recurring theme has been that, like Mary says, Dacron allows you to play more with the sail; it is more mouldable. An error in a dacron sail is more easily compensated with correct trimming. By the same amount a blown out sail can be coached back by adjusting your trim accordingly. Some sailors prefer the streching of dacron (not much but a little more than laminate sails) as that makes downhaul trim etc less critical. I can understand what they mean as I need to adjust my downhaul each time I adjust my mainsheet, no matter how small the mainsheet change is. IF I don not I either see wrinkles in my sail or I'm sailing with too much downhaul tension. Some racers perfer this sensitivity. I think it is a double edged sword; it can either be advantagious or an disadvantage depending on how skilled you (your crew) are and how willing you (your crew) are to constantly adjust the trim an many controls.
Dacron definately is said to have a longer life in it than any other material. This may be different from competitive life but after some time hard sailing laminates will delaminate and/or show cracks(creases) in the sail. Dacron will stand up much better to folding and abuse and for far longer. It will stay smooth as well.
Emmanuel Boulogne (F18 world champion 2003) says on the Sailing DVD that dacron and laminates like Pentex are different, not superior or inferiour, just different. By this he is saying that he feels that both material can produce fast sails but you have to compensate for their individual characteristics by sail design and by how you trim it. When both are done right then you will end up with a competitive sail.
In summary.
Dacron : more abuse resistive, more forgiving to trim errors or sail design errors, very good lifespan (recreational)
Laminate (Pentex , mylar) : Keep designed shape very well and are more air tight; Good competitve lifespan although apparently not very much longer than high quality dacron
Mono film : is getting out of fashion. Is said to be more extreme than laminates. Very unforgiving to error, very trim sensitive and when it ruptures than it is from top to bottom.
Advice given to me : Recreational sailor to recreational racer => dacron ; top 10 racer (or top 10% in smaller fleets) => laminates
On the jib; I would say that you can choose either way. Dacron holds up very well to abuse but today with the fully battened jibs and selftackers the jibs flap about alot less and aren't folded and pulled around the pull in each tack. I have a pentex jib and it seems to hold up very well without any signs of wear. That is with the exception of where the spreader tip touches the sail but I just stitch a small reinforcing patch there and it will take a while for it to wear through and then I can replace it with a new patch.
Personally I don't know what I will order as my next set of sails. I'm definately a recreational sailor to recreational racer and probably could do better with a more forgiving sail. I think the difference can be pretty small.
Wouter
