Wouter

The cloth is new from Contender, it is called MAXX. really cool stuff. allows you to make a cross cut sail with correct load paths. So you end up with a lighter sail (less panels) and with correct load paths. The sail is very smooth too.

The cloth I am using in these sails is MAXX carbon which is about 30/70 carbon and kevlar.

KICKA$$

Robi, thats your sailmaker in the bottom pic! On a Sunday.... so his hair isn't done

Is he the Arrow Head guru? Damn! tell him I said
whats up!!!
Nuthing but work of art

Have to say that the MAXX sail cloth works really good. My old Taipan had one mainsail with that material made by Steve Brewin and it was heaps lighter than the dacron main.

I see that Macca has taken my idea of the battens not extending past the batten pockets a bit further. Keeping the fastening internal. Looks heaps better than having stubby ends sticking out and using rope to tie them up. Plus less windage (marginal though). My fastening system used a velcro flap which went around the end of the batten.

About time Macca got the 5.7 sorted. Now to go sailing.

Attached a couple of pics of the batten pocket system I used on my Taipan.

JC

Another pic

Totally wicked conversion, Macca !
Can`t wait to read the report on your first sail. With that setup it looks to be the boat to beat, I can`t imagine even the T holding you off. And that mainsail looks like it was poured onto the mast, can`t find a wrinkle.
Our reinforced mylar sails are much heavier than Dacron, is this MAXX cloth much more pricey than regular reinforced mylar sailcloth ?
Boat looks like a winner - have fun blasting.

Steve

The Maxx pentex is approx double the price of high-aspect woven dacrons. The carbon varity is about 1/4 more expensive than the pentex variants..
The price should not be too different tough, as the sailmaker can build the sail faster (due to fever seams in cross cut layouts), less time on the cutting machine and less scrap material. I dont know how well the Maxx range have been tested for catamaran application, but we are putting a Maxx jib/main on our T this season.


Agree with Steve, the boat looks very fast and clean! Your sailmaker obviously knows his cloth as well, with some different (heavier) Maxx cloth at the luff to take downhaul loads. Is it a continous tape, or is it glued/stitched?
Now I am dying to find out why you went for such a rounded top on your main.. It was tried on the T in, I believe, 2002? But everybody are back to regular square tops now. Hmmm..

Care to tell us how your batten end-fittings are buildt? Velcro?

I don't think the MAXX cloth is double the normal price but it's certainly more than normal cloth. The Labour time to make the sail would be a lot less than a radial sail but we countered that by building new batten end tensioners. I can say that it not velcro that holds them in but that is all at this stage. The solution has a big future when mass produced.

Ah, let us know when you get them to the market

Launch day today, but no bloody wind!!!

another angle

clean layout

outhaul pic

another outhaul pic

Thanks for sharing the photos!

Do you have a plan for sucking away and keeping the spi-sheet organized while sailing as well?

I always hate it when the spi-sheet tangles with the downhaul lines..

It would be interesting to see some closeups of how you did the spi-ratchets and how you lead the spi sheet and downhaul lines.


I would have been really keen to go in _any_ wind after a major rebuild project like what you have done! Hope you get an opportunity to test it soon.

Nice! absolutley stunning. Specially the outhaul, its a "set it and forget it" setup.

Ok, here is kits sheet and downhaul layout, the downhaul goes over the kite sheet, the trick with the kite sheet is to make sure it isn't too long. It will take a while to get the right length but when you do you will magically have a clean deck.

Here is a close up of the kite blocks