Ullman Sails (Charley Ogletree)

This guy has got a rep in the Tornado class.

It was mentioned to me that the Ullman main and jib were layed over a several weeks old Ashby suit of sails and it compated favourably. The jib was identical in cut, the mainsail had the same luff curve and was very comparable in the other dimensions. The squaretops were within 50 mm of one-another and that is very close as today these squaretops are about 800 mm to 900 mm. The fact that the luff curves are as good as identical means that the sails are expected to have by far the same feel to them. Luff curve is very important overall. The leech starts out just a little longer on the foot (also 50 mm) and then moves up to the squaretop which is 50 mm less in length. This means the leech is rather similar as well. I have no info on the shape of the leech (straight, curved). But is was told to me that the sails look very similar in shape and how they sit on the boat. So there can't be large differences.

Of course some differences in the way panels and seams are cut and stitching can still exist, but luff curve is by far the most important influence in the behaviour of the sail. I have no data on the battens used so far, but again this is just small stuff.

With this info I expect the Ullman suit of mainsail and jib to be a rather good set as it is common knowlegde that Ashby is making some good jibs and mains for the superwing mast (Blade / Taipan). We'll know more later as it looks like two Blades (1 with Ashby suit and 1 with a Ullman suit) will meet eachother regulary on the water.

I hope this helps.

Wouter