Jep has 2 head sails: a #1 made of nylon (very light) and a #3 (105%) made of dacron. Neither sail has numbers or draft stripes. Both sails hank (clip) onto the forestay.
Surprisingly, when it comes to local sail lofts, the Milwaukee market is quite limited. I had heard of S Lee Sails in Port Washington, but when I attempted to contact them, the listed number had been disconnected. Bad sign. The North Sails loft in downtown Milwaukee is over priced and last time I had some simple work done they took forever. That left me with Nielson Sailmakers in Racine.I spoke with Micky Nielson regarding the work I wanted on the sail. She informed me that in PHRF races, numbers are not required on #3 head sails. With that in mind, I opted to leave my #3 alone and only add numbers and stripes to my #1.
This past Saturday morning I made the 30 minute commute to Racine to drop off the sail. Upon a quick inspection, Chris Nielson told me that the bolt rope on the luff of the sail was too short and he would reset the rope at no cost. Awesome! With a longer, reset bolt rope we should not have to tension the halyard quite as much. I'm hoping this will also improve the overall sail shape.
The sail should be done by this weekend.
UPDATE 3/26/2011: I picked up the sail this weekend. Not only did they reset the bolt rope at no cost, they also added a tell tale window! Chris said that if he were using the sail, he'd want a tell tale window, so he installed one!To those of you who read this and need work done to your existing sail inventory, I highly recommend taking your sail to the Nielson loft. The staff is courtious and knowledgable. They also design and build new sails.
Charlie, I'm considering getting a Captiva, primarily for racing? How does she point? I'm a little concerned about that given the centerboard design. Thanks,
ReplyDeleteDan