LR Sails,
Just a note of thanks for the new suite of 4T OneSails that LR Sails supplied & installed on Infusion of Whitsundays (Fusion 40 cat).
You’ve nailed the brief I’d originally given for substantially reducing the weight of the sails, in particular the mainsail. But I also discussed getting a modest improvement in light air performance, which has been exceeded by maximizing the roach on the new main, and adding a little more area into our self-tacking headsail by adding a battened leech. One might have expected this extra sail area along with the additional batten length would increase the mainsail’s weight, but in fact the One Sail 4T Forte construction and the high tech Fibre Foam carbon battens has almost halved the weight of my original Dacron & fiberglass battened mainsail. This all seems an overkill for a cruising cat, but weight reduction now allows for fast effortless hoists using a $100 battery drill as a winch handle. The savings by not having to convert my manual halyard winches to electric drives helped me rationalize the added cost of the lighter high tech mainsail & battens. My old dacron mainsail didn’t get much use simply because it was too heavy to get it up using the manual halyard winch, and I’d already done everything possible to reduce friction in the halyard tuning blocks etc. etc.
We are just back from a 3 month cruise up to the Whitsundays & the Shag Islet Rendezvous and apart from one of the batten boxes breaking in a high wind jibe on the way up, the sails have exceeded my expectations. And I must thank you guys at LR Sails for your aftersales support in driving ~2,000 klms to replace the single broken Rutgerson batten box with a full new set of customized though bolted batten boxes … this prompt & comprehensive support of your product without argument is greatly appreciated.
As cruisy yachties we don’t usually do much windward sailing, but the odd time that we did go to windward it was much better … light on the helm and heaps more power compared to the old dacron sails. On our trip up to the Whitsundays we had a couple of days of square running in 25~30 knots which was easily handled with a single reef in the main and a goose-winged self-tacker jib. Our return trip to Brisbane included quite a bit of reaching, and motor sailing. Even in heavy cruising trim, the boat managed a GPS 10.6 knots for an extended period on autohelm with 15 knots of breeze on the beam and pushing a bit of tide when coming into Sandy Straights. This is pretty good for us!
Your design for the new mainsail boom bag is working well with fast mainsail drops requiring only very little effort to tidy up the sail before to zip closing the bag. It’s quality build and my previous experience with Sunbrella fabric suggests it should standup well to our harsh UV … and it just looks good!
Oh, and the smooth shape designed/molded into both the main and jib looks really good, and the dramatic matt black finish on the sails is a bonus.
We’re just taken delivery of another of your 4T OneSails, an overlapping headsail, and can’t wait to try it out …
Cheers
MM
