Again, not trying to sound like a jerk, but these forums stick around for years and years, which is why I try to comment when errors are posted...To save the next guy from hassle, and from making an ill informed decision.
ericweller wrote:
1) The quality is good. I had to take a leap of faith that FX will do a good job, but after seeing the final product, I was very pleased. As far as standing behind their product, when my sail ripped when the batten popped out of the pocket, FX fixed the sail for free, whereas I seriously doubt Hobie would have done that.
I don't know why the sail ripped in the first place, but I have never had a brand new Hobie sail tear at the batten pocket when the battens were properly installed. Hobie has one of the best warranties in the sailing industry, bar none.
ericweller wrote:
2) What is so special about a Hobie sail? It does not have a curve formed in the sail shape. There is no high tech fabric. It is pretty much a triangular, flat Dacron product. As such, as long as the experienced sailmaker at XYZ has the proper specs of the sail, they should be able to produce a quality product similar to what Hobie produces. Yes, the sail is the lighter weight Dacron since some colors are not available in the heavy weight Dacron. But, less weight makes the boat go faster.
Not really. For example, a small boat specific sail maker, like say, Glaser sails, understands how the rigs and boats act through the water. Their designs are much different than, say, a loft that produces cruising boat sails (like FX).
With a lighter cloth, what will happen is the sail will bag-out between the battens very quickly. I can tell from the picture from all of the wrinkles in the main that the cut isn't right. How do you think I could tell that it's lighter cloth from a 1"X1" picture on the internet?
Also, the lighter material will stretch much more quickly on the leach and luff due to the relatively high load of the mainsheet blocks and the downhaul.
The jib will stretch and in a very short time you won't have the ability the sheet the jib properly because the blocks will bottom out. It looks like it already will go block to block unless you move the tack up a few holes. It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul, and as the sail stretches it get's worse.
ericweller wrote:
3) I don't really care about racing other than play racing other boats that happen to be sailing around me. I would venture to guess that 90% of H16 sailors couldn't care less about being class legal, but they do want their boat to stand out.
I personally will not even broker a boat with aftermarket sails or tramp due to the inferior quality of some of them. Generally speaking, the aftermarket sails and tramps look good for a fraction of the time as the Hobie brands. For the most part, they just don't last as long.
ericweller wrote:
Hobie only offers 2 styles of sails for the H16, all white or red/smoke. I did not like either option. Since Hobie does not do custom colors, I had to go elsewhere. I don't think someone who has Tequila Sunrise color scheme would be willing to go to a Hobie sail and lose the colors they have. The options they have is to buy some 20 year old POC or find someone who will duplicate the color scheme.
IMHO, it doesn't matter if you're class legal, but you have to have a nice looking boat.
As pointed out, that's false.
There are few lofts that I can think of that would make a comparatively good sail for a Hobie 16 at a similar cost. The H16 sail is a very labor intensive sail to build.
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