How to choose a new sail?

It is a question I have mulled over for a while now. 

I agonised over which one to get before finally - this month - buying a sail. So how to choose?

Solo sails are an expensive piece of kit and nobody wants to spend the best part of £1000 on a sail that doesn't work for them. I think the leading sail lofts know this and the top 5 at the Nationals in 2022 (like most years) consists of sailors who are "in the business" in some way - they either work for a sail loft or work for/own other businesses that supply boats or kit for Solos.

It makes a lot of business sense. What better way to promote your brand than to show it winning big events?

I put together a spreadsheet when I bought my Solo a year or so ago of sailmakers. Looking around at my club, most people (but not all) buy sails from lofts that have done very well at events. There are a number of other sailmakers who I know from experience design excellent sails who never/rarely feature in sail purchases by club Solo sailors.

I know that - in other classes - sails from McNamara, Goacher (pictured above) and Impact (who I wrote an article about) win championships, but don't feature that often in Solos. I see Andy Tunnicliffe has started to promote the Impact Solo sail by sailing himself in events. He is a very good sailor and the sail is great, so he often does very well.

I took a look at the Solo 2022 Nationals results - the top 5 as mentioned were sailors in the business and it finished North, HD, Hyde, P&B, HD.

What what about top sailors not in the business? A quick scan of results from championships and opens suggests they also choose from that same group of sailmakers:

Guy Mayger HD
Martin Honner North
Alex Butler North
Tim Lewis P&B
Simon Derham Hyde
Nigel Thomas HD
Fraser Hayden HD
Vince Horey P&B

Apologies if you (a) are on the list and changed sail or (b) are not on the list and should be - it is a bit of a random list.

So it is tricky decision. Most of us go with a sail known to win. But I know from my club sailing it is no guarantee. We are often beaten by a good sailor who uses an Edge sail (which is excellent, by the way).

So what did I buy?

I decided a new sail was too much money for me - I am a club sailor who does the occasional open meeting - unlikely to win stuff. But I do want to do well - or at least better. So for me, buying a sail in very good condition from someone trading up was the answer. I was lucky - a very good sailor was selling a North P2 in "as new" condition for half the price of a new one (and he was changing to a P&B for next season - where is his brand loyalty? 😉 ). 

So that is my sail buying done for a while. The truth is, it won't make much difference to me which of the modern sails I buy - they are all very likely to be faster than the 15 year old Dacron sail I currently use.

The "new" sail will be used for next season and kept for best (no very windy outings) so I am looking forward to seeing if it helps me ⛵