Best Performance Sail Cloth. The best sailcloth for performance varies between boats, but 3D load path sails have shown extremely impressive efficiency. This is because load path sails are molded ahead of time to assume the optimal shape for harnessing wind power.

North Sails offers three material options to help you find the right sails for your needs. Every North cruising sails is custom-designed for your boat and sailing style. By matching the right materials to your sailing goals, you'll be even happier with your new North sails.

Jul 17, 2013 · Prior to the late 1980s and the introduction of North’s 3DL sails—so-called molded sails—sailmakers and cloth manufacturers were working on their own versions of what has become known as load-path or string sails, which is the other way of making a laminate fabric. Essentially, continuous fibers are glued down on a Mylar film in computer ...

Sailcloth is cloth used to make sails. It can be made of a variety of materials, including natural fibers such as flax , hemp , or cotton in various forms of sail canvas , and synthetic fibers such as nylon , polyester , aramids , and carbon fibers in various woven, spun, and molded textiles.

Molded sails are a relatively new construction technique that involves shaping the sail material over a mold to create a smooth, wrinkle-free surface. This method can be used with a variety of materials, including laminates and high-strength fibers, and results in a sail that is more aerodynamically efficient than traditional sewn sails.

Dec 8, 2022 · Unlike paneled sails which are built on a flat surface, 3Di sails are built, much like a hull or an airplane wing, using a 3D mold. But, just like traditional sailcloth, 3Di sails are made using fibers or filaments (70% of the sail structure), and resin (30% of the sail structure).

Contender Sailcloth’s woven cloth, made from our unique Fibercon ® yarns, provides excellent UV resistance with superior shape retention. Our fabrics are produced with custom designed constructions and given a “use based” finish, tailored to your cruising needs or …

This versatile range of 3Di OCEAN sails caters to boats of all sizes, providing them with the advantages of 3D molded, composite sails meticulously engineered for long-lasting performance and user friendliness.

Somewhere between paneled sails and molded sails are membrane sails that are manufactured as large panels and then sewn together. These are loadpath sails similar to those manufactured on a mold, but the difference is that they have seams running across the sail.

Molded sails are a type of laminate sail that are built on a computer-designed female mold, rather than cut from flat panels. This allows the sail to have a precise double curvature that matches the designed shape of the sail.