My main is about done. I purchased it 9 years ago from a fellow on the forum. It has worked out very well but wear and tear have taken their toll.
Having said this, the experience taught me that a 'mail order" sail can work out pretty well. Given I am not rich and I live on the Cali Bay area where sail lofts apparently think everyone is rich, I was wondering if any of you has used a remote loft with reasonable prices and acceptable quality.
Ideally someone who has outfitted a Mull 30.
I have bought 4 sails from direct sails, homg kong in past 18 months. Just ordered 2 sails for my, new to me , f40 cat ketch.
Mike - try a quote from Dominic in Alameda, at dominic@marcalsailmakers.com. I have another email that may be better. marchalsails@gmail.com. I’ve had repairs there for little $. A few years ago he quoted a price on a head sail, and that looked good (but times change!). And try Travis at Mack Sails in Florida - but I did notice their prices have increased too…..
I got my main sail from Fareast sails last year. $900 versus 2.5K from US based Quantum Sails.
There was a lot of back and forth messages regarding the design. Unless your sail is in the data base, be ready to guide them every step.
I’ve been out of the country since August, and am currently sailing from Cape Town to Grenada, so I’m a bit out of touch with what’s going on with tariffs, but how does that effect pricing?
I’ll try marchel but I had him do repairs a number of years ago and was not particularly impressed
I’ll also reach out to Mack. I think they have a Mull 30 template
I’ll reach out to them.
I’ll check them out. I have a list of must haves and nice to haves so pretty sure a lot of coordination will be necessary. Were you happy with their product?
So I assume you are happy with the new sails? Did you ask for any specific features?
I ask because I am unhappy about a few elements of my current sails. They sail fine but I don’t like batten pocket security, hardware used for batten seats at the luff and that sort of detailed stuff which I would like to specify.
Well Geoff, since you have been gone tariffs have gone up to 100% then they came down to 50% then they went to 75% and then they went to 15% and then they went back to 50% for a few days and then back to 100% and then there was a war and they went to 75% and then they went to 50%.
Other than that, not much has happened since you have been out of pocket
Mike, I have been trying to follow what’s going on. Believe me, every South African, or whatever country we’re in, asks us “what the hell is going on in the US?”!
Believe me, the tariffs affected us in a big way with the purchase of BlueJaclet2, as we had to switch from a US registered boat to a Royal Marshal Islands registration.
I will say that the ride on BJ2 is incredibly sweet. She’s extremely fast and very stable. It’s 3AM and we’ve got 20 kts of wind at 170 TWA, and I’m watching our speed bounce between 10 and 12 kts!
Good luck with the sails. I will say that I’ve had very god luck with Jerry Latell from what’s now Ultimate Sails in Deltaville, VA. Far from discount, but high quality.
Yes happy with all sails so placed my next order.
If you want touchy feelings customer service, alterations after delivery etc that’s more tiresome. You specify what you want in design stage, they make it, send a video before dispatch, you accept or modify, then pay 2nd half, then they deliver .
It’s a price thing.
Sail came out nice, not sure how to evaluate the stitching but geometry, number and logos, grommets and batten pockets are on par. Will see how it will last (my old sale came with the boat 21 years ago and was ok). The two negative sides - they went nuts on slides. Put them at the end of each batten and 2 in between. I ended up skipping every third one as hoisting became impossible even with lubricated track. That was something we did not discuss and I guess they had their own idea about attachment to mast. Second - I was hoping that as sailmakers they could design something more advanced, basis mast/boom dimensions, type of rig and my ways of sailing (was looking for better performance in low winds). They came up with something i feared will not fit. They were asking me for various dimensions, put them into mock up and I could see it was just wrong. I gave up and basically fed them the exact dimensions and lay out of my original sail which they gladly reproduced. In general, as I understand, most US sailmakers work with you to design the sail, once it is done, they send it to Asia to manufacture. the premium you pay is for designers burden and guarantee. If you have your design already or its a common boat with well know sail design - go directly to far east lofts and save money. There was no tariffs added to my order
Great. Thanks for the review.
william m. cunningham II
OK., awesome, thank you!!