That exactly the right describtion for it. Average sailor (or rather average racer). For the all out obsessed race all upgrades are attractive, but for the more average joe truly only a smaller selection is.


-1- Kevlar hulls (US$700)

I have it from various sources that kevlar hulls are the best lightweight hulls in the way of abuse resistance. One such source has been working professionally on A-cats fro many many years; a second source was actually the first builder to have included kevlar in their boats; also a guys with heaps of experience in boat building, boat repair and development.

From personal experience with working with Kevlar I know that the stuff is insanely resistant to rupture and damage. You can't break or tear pieces off; something you can do with plain glass and carbon. Carbon as a matter of fact can even act quite brittle, glass will bend and flex a little, Kevlar beats both at this game.

With lightweight hulls to balancing act is always between strength, stiffness and abuse resistance of the hulls. I PERSONALLY feel that kevlar has the right balance here resulting in a lightweight hull that is sufficiently stiff and more then sufficient abuse resistant, if there is such a thing as sufficient abuse resistance ! Of course more resistance is always welcome.


-2- Pentex sails (US$325)

The other post by Lance covers this pretty well. In addition is looks good as well, modern. Having said this I believe that a high quality dacron is not to be discarded too quickly either. HQ dacron will produce very long lasting sails with ample speed. For recreational sailing dacron could well be the better choice. For racing Pentex is just a little more promising although I have gotten my butt kicked by HQ dacron sails plenty of times. We are talking final bits of a few % performance here. Important if you are a top of the line racer, not nearly as important if you are a sub topper or a joined recreational sailor/club racer.

In addition, I feel pentex has the right amount of sensitivity to trim without being overly sensitive, something I feel other modern sailcloths have, like monofilm. You want the sail to stretch a little. No stretch will again make optimal tuning and trimming very difficult.


-3- 1:12 Internal downhaul system (US$100)

The best downhaul system I ever used especially when solo sailing. It is fitted internally in the mast so your mast looks really clean and the blocks/lines are well protected from the weathering. The last will maintain optimal operation through hard use and long times. Doing repairs on it (much less often then other downhaul systems) is actually not a difficult or time consuming task. You can take the whole system out, do your thing and put it back in inside 60 to 90 minutes, that is when working at a normal relaxed pace. But I can assure you that this system will only need very very little maintenance or repairs. One in every few years at the most.


-4- Stay masters.

I have got a better system on my own boat, but the next best thing are the stay-masters. In principle the staymasters allow you to quickly adjust shroud tension and mast rake with the sails up and the boat fully rigged. This way it is very easy to adjust these settings between races or when switching from racing solo to doublehanded or in reverse. For recreational sailing you can leave mast rake as it is, but for some highly competitive racing the adjustment of the mast rake can just get that extra bit of balance into the boat and win you several boatlengths. And of course this upgrade is darn cheap, you can't buy staymasters for such low cost as aftermarket items.

Wouter