Less stretch at the seams
Why do sails start to look old? According to North, it's because the panels stretch and shrink at different rates
- and the problem shows up where they're joined at a seam. Although North offer their high-tech, moulded 3DL sails as one solution, they wanted to produce a panelled sail which would give many of the same performance advantages without the cost.
The result is what they call PowerCurve - a construction method using narrow, curved panels to ensure that the loads travel along a properly orientated thread line while crossing the smallest possible number of seams. Theoretically, it should produce faster, lighter and longer-lasting sails - and not just for racing sailors. |
Yacht Designers 