A View From The Outside

I read North's Genoa quote to the J-44 class today with great interest. We were also asked to quote on these genoas, but, as I expected, didn't get the order. We were told that the cloth we specified was not durable enough. I would have thought that we would have been told that: 1.) we didn't have enough experience in the class, which is true, compared to North, or 2.) that we were not a big enough loft to deliver an order of this size by mid March. This could also have been true. It would have been a very tough delivery for us, as we are a relatively small loft in upstate New York, and currently have a very large backlog of work for this coming spring.

However, it was the durability issue that supposedly decided the order.

I have a couple of questions to those in the sailmaking business that make these kind of promises about the durability of their products. How do they quantify durability? Do they cut test samples from sails that have seen extensive "on the water" use and retest the cloth? Have they developed an in house destructive test procedure to mimic these retest results? Does the in house testing predict the on the water durability for only one type of cloth, or throughout the range of woven and laminates? How long have they been performing these tests? Do they use this destructive test procedure to accept or reject cloth?

We developed a test proceedure over 25 years ago that we believe is a reliable indication of any fabric's future durability. We have observed extreme variations in stretch and shrinkage results after our Impact Flutter testing from one batch to the next for the same cloth style, from the same manufacturer. Some samples actually fall apart and are not able to be tested after our Impact Flutter test. We perform this test proceedure on every batch of upwind cloth, woven or laminate, before we purchase it. It is not unusual for up to 70% of some fabric styles to fail our test. It is my understanding that these lots are sold to other sailmakers as "first quality".

It is easy to talk about durability, because it is virtually impossible to prove any claim is false- pretty much the same as the faster sail claims. The problem is, there are other variables outside the sailmakers' control that determine durability. How many times have you seen knuckleheads motoring out to their starting line flogging their mains, or tacking the Genoa into the spreaders because the crew doesn't release the Genoa sheet. How many times do you see sails ripped because the spreaders or lifelines, etc. weren't taped, or "drying" their Genoa by hanging it upside down from the masthead, and flogging it against the rigging. These, and many more stupid antics will destroy a good fabric faster than any prediction that results from acceptance testing.

Finally, as the North proposal is so counter, as you point out, to the usual 3DL "hype", is it ok to quote portions of the North proposal, or your introduction in our monthly e-mail newsletter?

Hoping for a favorable reply,

Steve Haarstick
Haarstick Sailmakers, Inc.
1461 Hudson Ave.
Rochester, NY 14621

1-800-342-5033
steve@haarsticksailmakers.com

1/6/05