MAINSAIL, 2 REEF, PREMIUM PERFORMANCE, LITE-SKIN

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Our Price: $1,449.00

Product Code: 7118-1V0

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Description

Technical Specs

Extended Information

These sails are new to our BWY Exclusive sail line for 2020! We are truly excited to offer these exceptional sails at such a competitive price. The new Lite Skin fabric allows us to offer a combination of durability, performance, and ease of handling never before possible.

Historically there have essentially been three choices in sail cloth (other than exotic racing fabrics). Dacron, which is affordable, is plain white, has a reasonable life span, and is easy to handle in lighter weights, but has higher stretch and less performance than more modern fabrics. Racing Laminates, which are very light weight, moderately expensive, flashy looking, offer high performance, and are very fragile. Cruising Laminates, which combine the basic construction of a racing laminate with an outer layer of woven Dacron to improve durability. These fabrics are fairly expensive, offer good performance, tend to be somewhat stiff to handle and look essentially like a Dacron sail.

Enter Lite Skin, an all new 6 layer laminate from Dimension Polyant. Lite Skin offers a strength to weight ratio high enough to be a legitimate race fabric, but with such excellent durability and ease of care that it makes a great high end cruising fabric as well. As an added bonus Lite Skin is reasonably priced and has a really cool look. All BWY Lite Skin sails have the premium finish and features you would expect in a high end sail. For an overview of the design and construction of this particular sail click on the "Extended Information" tab. For more information about the Lite Skin technology click on the "Technical Specs" tab.

WHAT IS LITE SKIN^®?
This specifically developed external layer of the laminate is made up of a random array of non-woven polyester filaments and the exclusive Dimension-Polyant UVt® finish coating. The resulting properties are reduced film shrinkage, increased UV resistance, increased chafe resistance, opaque technical appearance and reduced water absorption. In simple words: This modern laminate is strong, durable and light. A free bonus is the elegant look in anthracite grey. Lite Skin is a 6 layer laminate with a scrim layer, a diagonal reinforcement layer, 2 film layers, and a layer of Lite Skin on each outer surface.
HOW IS LITE SKIN DIFFERENT THAN PREVIOUS FABRICS?
Before now, all laminate sails have been either "Film / Film" sails (often referred to as race laminate) that are semi-transparent, very light, but very delicate, or "Taffeta" sails (often referred to as cruise laminate) that have a layer of woven Dacron laminated to each outer surface of the sail to give it better durability and abrasion resistance. Unfortunately the taffetta adds no meaningful strength or stretch resistance to the sail, just weight and durability. While superior to a woven Dacron sail, cruise laminate sails also have their limitations. The new non-woven Lite Skin surface layer provides durability and abrasion resistance, as well as better UV stability, while adding significantly less weight and stiffness to the sail.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?
THE SHORT VERSION: More boat speed, better pointing upwind, less heeling as the wind picks up, easier control in gusts, not having to reef as soon, and having the coolest looking sails on the dock.
THE LONGER VERSION: Sails made from Lite Skin fabric offer a better balance of value, durability, performance and appearance compared to any previously available product. Anyone looking for an upgrade from our High Modulus Dacron sails should consider these sails. All laminate sails have a significant performance advantage over Dacron sails as they have less stretch as the wind increases and they hold their shape much better as the years go by, Lite Skin takes this to a new level. While Dacron sails are well known for lasting many years before they fall apart, they begin to lose their ideal shape much sooner. For any sailor concerned about performance, the only way to really define the life of a sail is by how long it performs to its original design, not how long it lasts before it falls apart. We all know that the shock absorbers on our car are worn out long before they actually fall off off the car! With reasonable care, Lite Skin sails will last many years and have nearly 100% of their original performance until very near the end of their life.