Hobie 17 sails????

Does anyone know where to get an aftermarket Hobie 17 sport set of sails???

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Whirlwind Sails.

Talk to Chip at Whirlwind. I got a SuperR Squaretop last season and love it.

[/url]http://www.whirlwindsails.com/pdf/h17m_superr_sq.pdf[url][/url]

I bought a 6 batten 14 main that I love too.

Got a Main and jib from Chip last year. Excellent sails! Good service.

Anyone know the primary differences between the mylar and pentex materials?
Thanks!
john

I could be wrong, but this is pretty much my understanding...

Mylar is a DuPont manufactured plastic scrim. Basically just a thin sheet of plastic (windsurfers would refer to this as monofilm). The single layer of film is fairly delicate on it's own, but it has the advantage of resisting stretch in all directions, which is a desirable property in sail construction.

In Hobie terms, mylar sails refer to sails manufactured using a laminate of both dacron and mylar. This construction attempts to take advantage of both the durability of the dacron as well as the stretch resistance of mylar.

I believe (although I'm not totally sure) that Pentex is a form of X-ply - a laminate of two mylar (or similar monofilament) layers with glue and a reinforcing grid composed of hightech fibers sandwiched between the two layers. This type of construction has the benefit of stretch resistance of the two monofilm layers as well as being more durable and tear resistant than standard monofilm due to the reinforcing grid and the flexible glue. It is also more UV resistant than standard monofilm because the glue is a UV inhibitor.

sm

srm, you are on the mark.

So I read a thread from a guy who said he would go back to the Mylar from Pentex for his next sails and I was under the impression the Pentex was a more suitable option for most applications. Now I am wondering if the application of the material ie. Rec vs. Race should be the deciding factor if choosing sail material or if one is just a clearly superior option...?
Thanks for the replies, it's pretty interesting.
john

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'92 H-17 Sport

I think it pretty much depends on the application.

For mainsails, a quick answer would be Racing- Pentex (or any other modern laminate), Recreation- Dacron.

With a modern laminated material, you get a sail that will retain it's designed shape longer and over an increased wind range. It should also be more tunable. Basically the more you use a sail (and specifically, the more you pull on the sail) the more it deforms and loses it's ability to hold the shape that the sailmaker intended. Laminates are generally considered better in this regard than woven fabrics because they don't have a bias-axis or minor/major woven axis so they stretch less and they stretch equally in all directions.

The advantages of dacron sails are that they are cheaper and considered more durable. Laminates don't deal as well with crumpling or repeated creasing (although they are still pretty good in this regard). So if you're a casual sailor and you're the type of person that doesn't want to pay a lot of attention to rolling up and storing the sails carefully, dacron is the way to go.

Another interesting thing to consider- there is a windsurfing sail manufacturer who has gotten a fair amount of attention in recent years by bringing back dacron sails (for many years nearly all windsurfing sails were monofilm or laminate). One of the main selling points being that he can produce very colorful sails, something that can't be done with laminates.

In either case, the person actually building the sail has to know what they're doing otherwise the best materials will still build a poor sail.

sm