Woven vs. Mylar Question I recently have seen several boats using woven dacron genoas. Is there any advantage to these sails over the typical mylar laminated genoa? Clark Dennison Deltaville, VA
Answer Woven dacron is not durable enough for the abuse a J-24 genoa takes, and is not more costeffective than mylar laminate genoas. Recently, some sailmakers have returned to constructing genoas out of dacron as a way of presenting something different in the market from the popular mylar laminates. But despite recent improvements in woven dacron's durability, it still does not hold up well to the trauma a genoa takes as it luffs and beats across the boat in a tack. In a dacron sail, dacron fibers are woven together as a framework held together by resin. The resin is also primarily responsible for allowing the cloth to maintain "shape" while under load. When a woven fabric sail luffs or beats across the rig as the boat tacks, the resin in the fabric cracks and separates from the yarns, degrading both the sail's durability and its shape-retaining properties with every tack. Woven dacron genoas do not offer any cost savings, either. Woven dacron fabrics that are comparable in quality to the mylar laminates cost the same as the high-performance laminates already in use. Overall, woven dacron genoas do not offer a valued alternative to the laminates, either in cost or performance. However, woven dacron still works well for our mains and jibs, which do not receive the same kind of harsh treatment as the genoa.
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