I won't mention names....

Posted By: Sumner & Ruth
Date: 1/28/10 8:18p.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: New Sail (Doug91mac26s, San Diego)

....but we were about to order sails from one of the sailmakers that are widely known on these sites and probably would have been very happy with them, but I was e-mailing Bob Hussey (ex-mac guy "Watermark" about something else and mentioned we were getting new sails. He then told me that he got a package deal for his Mac that included a roller furler, new main and a new furling genoa from Somerset Sails....... http://www.somersetsails.com/ ...and that he was very happy with them. He suggested that I call Martin there and talk to him about our needs. I did and found Martin to be very informative and was great at answering all of my dumb questions. He would stay on the phone for however long it took to make me understand what he was suggesting. Anyway we ended up getting a 135 genoa that is radial cut. I had to look that up to see what it was and the benefits. We started with a 150, his initial suggestion, but after I explained our lake sailing with it's unpredictable winds and our comfort zone he agreed that a 135 would probably be better for us as it would still have fairly good sail shape when reefed into jib size. For the main he recommended a cross-cut and not a radial cut in our case and boat size. We did get it with full battens and one reef point. The one reef point is about where the 2nd reef is on the factory sails. Bob told me he questioned the one reef point and said that Martin would change it to two latter if you really wanted it. Bob said he never felt the need to go to the other reef point and was happy with just the one deeper reef point. On a side note he explained how a main traveler would really help with heeling and sail control, so that is why I also want to add that. The main is also loose footed and again Bob said he wondered about that also, but once he had used the sails liked that also for better sail control and easier reefing. We also got the CDI from him. It was about $25 more than the cheapest place I found. The main was $750.00. The cheapest main I could find of equivalent weight was $600, but wasn't a full batten sail and wasn't loose footed. The main also had the slugs installed. The 135 Genoa was $600.00 and that also included the protective edge for sun damage control. We wanted to match the bimini color which is not commonly stocked, so we spent about $90 for that and ordered it from Sailrite and they drop shipped it to him and he put it on in the $600 price. As I mentioned the main is radial cut and a little longer on the luff, so it is slightly larger square foot wise than a factory 135 I believe. Total was $1820 for the two sails and the CDI and a really nice sail bag. $45 for shipping of the sails and CDI. I don't know how to tell sail quality, but they look great and Ruth sews a lot and she was really impressed compared to our old sails. Check out their web site for sails they have built. The least expensive sails and CDI I could find were $1600 and didn't have the features or I believe the quality of these sails. For $220.00 more I think we have sails that we will be happy with probably for the rest of our sailing careers. If you are looking for sails call Martin and mention I told you about him and his company. Good luck and I'll post some picture later, Sum Our Trips to ... Our Mac Pages... Mac Links...