Dart 15 Forums

OK, I fell off the wire and went through the mainsail, (Dart 15 of course)but it was blowing a hooley at the time - thats my excuse. Insurance will not replace it saying I have to have it patched, and whilst I can have it patched I will not be happy with a patched sail, especialy across two main panels and the size the patches will need to be. Are there any serious competitors out there who replace their mainsials regularly and have a good quality used mainsail collecting dust that I could put back into active service again. I will be more than willing to pay an appropriate price and replace the sail numbers etc. I can be contacted through the forum or Email me directly at david@valanddavid.co.uk Idealy I would like to have a sail in time for the Carsington open meeting in December (where I am a member). Thanks: David

Hi David,
Second hand sails are rare. Most people want to keep hold of them for use in heavy weather. You may be lucky.
On the sail that is damaged my recommendation is to get it repaired by Hyde. It is well worth the cost of the transport. About 7 years ago they replaced 4 pannels and the entire bolt rope on my coloured sail which I use much of the time and as a back up at big events and it is super. There is no evidence of it being a bad shape or worse in anyway.
If you want the contact details try search on these chat pages and if you fail drop me an e mail note.
Cheers
Bob Carter

David,

From what little has been written, it seems that your policy provides for losses to be made good to the standard applying immediately prior to the incident, ie you do not have "replacement as new" cover which entitles you to a new sail.

I believe that your sail would have been class legal for racing purposes before the damage was incurred. I do not know the terms of your insurance policy, and I don't want to!! But if the nature of the incident and the damage falls to be covered under your policy, I think you should be successful in persuading your insurer that you are entitled to have it repaired to that standard.

Like Bob, I suggest that your sail needs to be repaired by completely replacing the 2 damaged panels with class legal material, shape and layout (ie which way the warp and weft run). This seems to me to be the only way that you can ensure that the sail remains "class legal" for racing purposes, as patched panels may well be deemed to create sufficient uncertainty as to performance for the "repaired" sail to fall foul of Class Association rules for racing purposes - the mainsail is, after all, the engine that drives the boat, and it is a one design class!

Like Bob I have had a sail repaired in this way - a very long time ago and as an insurance claim. After repair the sail was good enough to get a top 10 result in the Sport Nationals. It provided years of satisfactory service before I had to replace it for serious racing, and even more before I stopped using it for racing purposes at club level.

I think that you should be able to get your insurer to agree to repairs of this kind, and done by sailmakers who can ensure the sail will be "class legal" after repair. Note that this may well be what the insurer had in mind when stating the sail would have to be patched, and that part of your dissatisfaction may be due to misunderstanding.

Good luck with your further negotiations with your insurer, and I hope to see you sailing at Carsington.