David,
I purchased new Dacron cruising sails (main and 135% genoa) for our 34 last
spring for the 2019 season. After getting quotes and discussing it with
several suppliers including North Sails and Precision I decided to go with
Doyle Sails in Salem MA. Chris Howes at Doyle worked with me on the quote and
throughout the process. It was a positive experience and I am very pleased
with the end result. I would highly recommend Doyle as a local MA sail loft.
We selected the Durasail product line for the main and genoa - both using cross
cut Dacron. In the case of the main, they used a 7.62 oz HA (high aspect)
material which is designed to take the additional vertical load from the aspect
ratio of the sail. I think that it has more fiber in the vertical direction
than the horizontal direction. The new sail was designed with a loose foot
which really helps with making the outhaul effective. Four full battens, two
sets of reef points and attachment of the luff track slides from my old sail
were all included. The Genoa is 7.77 oz “Marblehead constructed” and included
a sun cover and luff flatter for reefing by partial furling were included. The
sun cover on the furling genoa is a relatively thin material that is white and
unlike Sunbrella doesn’t weigh down the sail significantly - it is hard to
notice it is there if you are not looking for it. They also included sail bags
and a full collection of sail ties, C&C logo and pre-installed a complete set
of tell-tails on both sails! The set of main and genoa cost around $5000 + tax
if I remember correctly for my boat - your boat is larger and it is a year
later so presumably will be more.
Doyle makes sails both in Salem and in Jamaica. I specifically requested that
they make the sails locally in Salem and they were fine with doing that (and
didn’t charge a premium). I was able to take my old sails to their loft to
have them measured and I picked up the new sails at the same location so there
wasn’t any shipping charge (did have to pay MA sales tax of course). Also
Doyle finished the sails significantly earlier than they quoted me and well
before the start of the season. I also appreciated that they took me seriously
and gave really good customer service even though this was a small order for
them (at least judging by what they had going on in the loft at the time).
North sails quote was initially a lot more although they came down quite a bit
(to just slightly more than Doyle’s price) when the sales person learned of the
price point I had selected - but they also had a long lead time quoted that
would have been well into the middle of the season for us. Hint - it can be
worth pitting one maker against another - they seem to have some ability to
adjust pricing so negotiating is definitely an option. Precision’s base quote
came in much cheeper than Doyle although by time you add in all the extra’s to
the same rough quality and components provided by Doyle, it is unclear if it
would have been less expensive (it was hard to make an apples to apples
comparison since they were using different materials and the details were
different). Precision charges separately for each “additional" thing including
reinforcements, reef points, etc. - all of that is included by default from
Doyle. Overall I really appreciated the service and knowledge of having a
local loft do the work and I also liked supporting the local economy. I would
definitely go with Doyle again next time I need a sail.
New sails are great to have and after one season on the boat they still look
and feel almost new so I think that they will last a long time!
That’s my two cents,
Nathan
S/V Wisper
1981 C&C 34
Lynn, MA
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