Hi, I have an early eighties Wine with a hog stepped alloy mast and boom. I currently have a lose footed composite main and dacron Jib. Will a modern suit of sails work with my boat. I am pretty certain the main will be OK as the current one came off a Tales but have the Jibs changed much.

Tony

I found with mine that with a modern set of sails the boat didnt go as well as with ones designed for the rig. 
Most modern sails have a longer foot to the sail and shorter luff.
What boom length/mast height have you got?

Hi Luke,

I have a 22ft 6in mast and plenty long boom, she currently has a main from a Tales so I know it will fit its just the jib I was worried about.

Take your point about going better with sails designed for such a boat but I am guessing I would need to spend £££millions to have such a new set made.

Tony

I think you run into problems with a sail that's too short for the mast. However if the mast length is ok I think a decent sail that's not quite cut right will better than an 80s sail that's done most weekends!

If the sail is too short it'll be like having no top taper to the mast. It'll be far too stiff just where you want it to flex.

or... you could perhaps do a swap of masts with a riversailor who may want to change to 22' 6" rig?  Also, there are some used good carbon masts on the web if Santa is feeling generous!

Tony, is the boat deck stepped on hog stepped? If it is deck stepped then I have a carbon mast for sale and some sails. If not you could always get Dirty Hands to add a bit to it to make it hog stepped.

Otherwise, I have lots of sails for sale too in various states of use from new to well used. I am open to offers on all of it.

Thanks all for your help, seems more of a minefield than I had thought.

Think I will make do with what I have and think about a more modern boat/rig when the time comes as just hoisting some newer sails would seem to ask more questions than it will answer and not make me go any faster.

Tony

Tony,

For what it's worth, I have an old boat (2266) on which I have a stiff metal mast (with spreaders) and boom and use a nice set of second hand sails made by North. Compared with the previous sails, the boat is going much faster and unless you have designs on the circuit, I wouldn't worry if the sails aren't an exact match for the mast

Tony,I have just put a set of second-hand modern sails in some fancy modern material designed for a carbon mast on my old NSM2 (3463) with a deck-stepped stiff aluminium mast and the difference in performance has blown me away.  It is definitely worth a go; perhaps you could borrow some to 'feel' the difference.

Don't forget that we are talking about a 22' 6" rig here. I think it would be worth looking for a 21' second-hand mast - there must be loads ali ones about from boats that have long gone and from people who have upgraded to a carbon rig.

I had a similar dilema with a previous boat and my best option was to get a deck stepped M7 section mast and grafted a lower section on to make it hog stepped. It was as tough as old boots, never showed any sign of breaking. The benefit was that some sails could still be found for that mast section. Maybe an M1 section would be more compatible with sails cut for carbon. Even then there was a scarcity of good s/h dacron sails to suit. I found spreader settings and pre bend helped a lot. HTH

Before I changed I was toying with the idea of an M1 or even a C-section but events overtook me and I have much better set-up. I think it would be worth a go.