Does anyone know of a database available to skippers that would list the burst strength (by wind speed) of the various weights of cloth by type and manufacturer (sort of like the UTC you find on new tires).
For example:
North Sails states that a 2S spinnaker of their NorLon 75 cloth is for winds of 10 - 20 knots or average sustained apparent wind speed of 17 knots.
How would the same sail perform if cut from Challenge Sailcloth vs. Contender US Sailcloth vs. Bainbridge Sailcloth?
I found this information on the Bainbridge International site:
http://www.sailcloth.com/weight-converter.html
It helps sort out wat the werious weights you may get in quoted mean but it still does not give a strength compareison.
i always thought that strength increased with weight and the differences between products was all about lifespan. mind you im sure more expensive .75 would be stronger than the cheapest but not by a whole load. this isnt realy my area of expertise so il ask someone who knows.
phil downey, kusi uk
Well that makes scene. But you also said:
How does a skipper know which fabrics are the cheaper or more expensive ones. The lofts will tell one what brand they are going to use but when each brand has multiple quality lines how does the skipper tell he/she is getting the quality product he was promised? For that matter, without going to each manufactures website how does one find out what those quality lines are?
The Tire Safety Council here in the US is a industry sponsored/financed body that developed the UTC (Uniform Tire Code) found on highway tires. The code does not compare tires between competitors but it does rate tires within a manufacture’s product line. How can skippers and sailmakers get the sailcloth makers to develop something similar?
Let us say the Widget Cloth Co. makes three sailcloth in 0.75 (Excel, Superior & Supreme). If the cloth was rated A, B or C for each of three characteristic (UV Resistance, Abrasion Resistance, and Shock Load) then we could easily determine what Widget’s best cloth was. Names come from the marketing department. Based on name alone, one might think Supreme was the best product. But if each product was rated we would see something different:
Excel = AAC
Superior = BBA
Supreme = CBA
We would easily be able to see which cloth would best suit our application.