How old are your sails? (Page 1 of 3)

Let me know what you find, I think mine are at least 25 years old.

You guys still have more "accessible" boat show prices and items there.  Here in Vancouver, they only had ONE sailboat in the big stadium!!  Of course there was the floating show...but, I'm not really interested in $250,000+ sailboats, I don't even like the looks of them!  (Except a Bristol Channel Cutter, of course! ;-)  All we have here are Beneteaus and Hunters at our shows...nothing you can really go offshore in (Unless you are Andy Copeland of course! ;-) (Local circumnavigator/ racer/fighter pilot, and a Brit- those sorts of guys can do anything!)
We have some good sail lofts, but you are right, there will be one that will be 1/3 the price...we have two small, good guys and of course five big, expensive good guys...mind you, one of them mixed up the J and I on my PHRF form, and the guy at the sailing assn. had to fix it!!!

My hank-on headsails are crispy new feeling, but are from 1985, my main is 1998, my roller furling genoa is 2000, my cruising chute is 1998.  I think...(invoices at the office! ;-)
What was the question again?!
Oh...my roller furling is a 135%. 
Main is fully battened, slight roach, three reefs, leech cord, loose-footed. 
Prices: not cheap...I don't recall any sail being under $1,500. (haven't looked at old receipts lately.)
I am very hapy with the sails, they are very nice!
I also like the hank-ons, and am trying to figure how to fit them in 'the wardrobe".

Hmmm, that's the same thing I was thinking....I even have two holes already in my stemhead area...I will likely practice it both ways, as I like the ideas of both roller furl and hank on...and yes, I am an idiot who likes to go forward in crappy weather...really.

I used to have a dual headstay rig on my old trimaran and it worked well.  There was about 8" between stays.  I had a furler with a #2 genoa or working jib on the inner, and used the outer for hank-on sails, either bigger light-air sails or a storm jib.  In either case I led the lazy sheet out and around the forestay rather than thru the foretriangle and jibed rather than tacked.  Jibing rather than tacking was safer in heavy weather and much easier with the big drifter... just couldn't short tack up a channel that way though!

If you are looking for top quality sails at a reasonable price look at the British sailmakers. The Canadian Dollar is under $2 to the pound right now and by exporting the sails you pay no British taxes.
I bought a new performance main($1200) and furling genoa($800) recently from Ivan Bole at Arun Sails in the UK and can't recommend them highly enough(www.sailmakers.com). Ivan made me a performance main in Tan when no one around here would. Try getting Tan sails in Canada and they want to charge extra.
Yes it is scary doing your own measurements and hoping the sails won't come cut short, but mine came perfectly sized and made. If you have a Rogers boat the sails are usually smaller so the price would be less.
Tip for buying in England....order during the London Boat Show(first 2 weeks in Jan) or the Southampton Boat Show(first two weeks in Sep) and get the discount rates they give at show time.

The downwind roll you speak of... If that happened with a main and jib wing on wing, then just pull in the main in 15 or 20 degrees and it should stop.  I have had it quickly build up to the point of rolling back and forth from port rail in the water to starboard rail in the water in seconds. Exciting, but....

We bought new main for our JR Contessa about 7 years ago, Doyle sails in the BVI, for about $750 --battened.  It has held up beautifully. They research the measurements and then did a physical measurement--the two matched.  I suspect North would be about the same.

New 110 jib, five or so years ago, hank on, was about $580.  Our 135 is at least 15 years old and still perfect.

Diane

Here's a heads up: I had my mainsail measured by the loft that had built it, as I was registering for my PHRF, and he either measured wrong or transposed the numbers!!!  And that was after putting in the third reef, which I have not tied in yet (boat still on hard and mad at me) ....so I take the numbers the owner of the sail loft (whom I will not name yet!) and give them to BC Sailing who calculate PHRFs, and they head guy from BCS calls me and sounds kind of puzzled, and politely asks me if I know my dimensions of sails, etc...so when we examine the numbers, sure enough, the measurements are wrong!!!  So...my point is: what if I had gotten them to make a new sail at the same time?!?!  I now know to hover over and approve the measuring, then view it once its cut, etc!   Sheesh!  You don't want an upside-down sail!   
So, I would go with a loft who you feel comfortable with....if the guy seems distracted or nervous...which this guy did, I learned not to go there!  Especially when his neighboring business tried to pick a fight with me when I parked near their work truck they were unloading steel from....and the sail guy says "oh, that happens all the time" when I asked him about it!   I will never go back to that loft... they also didn't seem to be able to deal with women...I was there first, and some guy came in after me and tried to literally push past me and talk to who I was talking with....I had to actually say to both the loft guy and rude customer "Ummm, in case you hadn't noticed, I am talking about my sails right now"...sheesh!!!

Is there a measurement for  a rollerfurling jib for 26?  You guys recommend 135?  My hank on genny was way too large- i need a sail between that one and the jib, really considering roller furl...which sail companies actually ended up being the best after above discusion?

First thing I did to my Contessa was install roller furling and adapt my 120% genoa to the roller. When I took over the boat in Biloxi, Mississippi, it blew 25 knots all the way to Mobile Bay. With working jib and reefed main I was uncomfortably overcanvassed.
Second thing I did was order a new main with 3 deep reefs and jiffy reefing.
Now I can control sail size, quickly, and sailing now brings me much happy.
I then installed a new Yanmar 1GM-10 and motoring now brings me much happy.

Yes, a fully battened main with three reefs does wonders for one's heart rate!   Then, learn how to reef FAST!   Learn to do it by yourself, and do it lots when the wind is only 15k or so...that way there isn't fear along with the panic, ha ha!

Ok, here's a story:  one fellow could not find out the year of his Contessa - he's an owner from Vancouver area.
I told him that my sail bags had a number on them.  He said he had looked and looked....and finally, just before he was going to give up, he held up the paper-thin sailbag to the light, and as he put it:  "like the shroud of Turin, the number appeared!"   

Cool, hey?!