My boat is 28 years old and in need of a new suit of sails, rigged with a hog stepped alloy mast.
I have spoken to several sail makers and two seem to stand out from the rest.
Both have a long history with the Merlin class and they are both offering the same advice and asking the same questions.
Now this may seem like a strange question but this will be the first suit of sails I have ever purchased new from a sail maker so "How do you choose"?

Kevan Bloor. Alverbanks.
He'll actually make you a sail to suit your boat, rather than just dishing out the current cut for the latest rigs, and a really friendly bloke too.

In no particular order
- Price
- Quality of Service
- Quality of Product

If you want to get technical apply an importance (your own) weighting (0-10) (stays the same for both) and a score (0-10) different for each e.g. cheaper price scores higher
e.g.
attribute            score         weight      total
Maker 1
Price                  7            7            49
Quality of Product     9            9            81
Quality of Service     9            7            63
                                                 ----
                                                 193
attribute            score         weight      total
Maker 2
Price                  8            7            56
Quality of Product     9            9            81
Quality of Service     7            7            49
                                                 ----
                                                 186

Then toss a coin!

......woof! 

Dave at Dynamic Sails gave me a gravy bone and he is a gent..

If one is less than 30 miles away, choose the nearer.

Macnamara has done various cvrda vintage boats well including 36 with a wooden mast! Stick with one like that who was making and sailing them around the time your boat was built.

We have a large fleet of vintage boats at Tammy and the majority of these have Rowsell Sails.

Thanks very much for your views. 
Order now placed sadly not in time for the Inlands v2 but maybe for The Sutton midland circuit event being held at Midland SC.

Kevan Bloor at Alverbanks, never had Merlin sails from him, but he has spend a lot of time sorting out Tempest class sails and others. Build quility very good and has time to talk to you about what you need from the sails. (apart from going faster)

cheapest sails are from DS you get em quick too.

Wooden Boat Sailor

If you come to Sutton, you will be slightly disappointed as the Midland Open on 20th October has been moved from Sutton to Midland SC.  Have a look at the fixture list for details.

If Midland Circuiter had read Wooden Boats Sailors post they would see that the change had been noted!

I have just placed an order for a new suit of dacrons for 3112 with Dick Batt. My recently sold MR 2789 had a 1979 suit of his sails that set better than a suit made by another maker in 2002. He and his staff are always helpful and his prices are competitive. That said, the McNamaras I have seen on the CVRDA circuit (Pat 2121 etc) look excellent.
Happy hunting, Pater E

Ours are Number Ones actually but what mattered was getting sails with the corect luff and foot lengths for the mast!

Pat Out of Interest what were those measurements?

Mea cupla.  Careful Reader is correct and I wasn't being careful but merely read the top line and leapt from there as I was concerned that Wooden Boat Sailor would end up in the wrong place so that we won't be able to see what sails he ended up buying!

The measurements were what's written on the original registration certificate (£20 from the RYA)!!
We did a really interesting exercise on sunday and hung all our Merlin mains up along the verandah by their luff and compared cuts and sizes. There was a considerable variety considering both boats have D section masts!
The modern kevlar sail was completely different cut and length - deeper foot, wider and shorter luff than the rest and must have been made for carbon mast as came from a modern boat.
One sail had a much shallower curve cut into it than the rest so will be tried for light winds whilst another had a very deep curve - sea sailing?
Our "best" sail for 2121 has the second shallowest curve and a 2468 (I think) foot and longer luff (5765 I think). Sorry don't have the numbers at work!