Good luck with your quest.

If you want the sails for cruising,  don’t be tempted with clapped out racing sails.   A good cruising sail is a very different animal from a good racing sail;   it will be cut flatter,  of a very different cloth,  it will better stand up to the sort of abuse which is inevitable in cruising (e.g. being sat on,  being strapped down to the boom with sail ties,  being crumpled,  etc),   it will be designed to set well when reefed as well as when full,  and it will be more strongly reinforced.

Insisting on one with reef points  –  which you will need anyway  –  is a useful preliminary screening process even though it is not a perfect screen;    some may be found which are “retired” racing sails which have had reef points added,  and some excellent cruising sails may have never had them fitted.   Nonetheless the balance of probability is that a second-hand sail with reef points is very likely to have been built as a cruising sail in the first place,  and most cruising sails will have had reef points fitted at outset.

Another good clue to identify cruising sails is the manufacturer.    Edge Sails are probably the headline name in GP14 cruising sails,   and although they also make racing sails (mainly for other classes) they are not particularly known for GP14 racing sails.   But they do seem to be the generally preferred sailmaker for GP14 cruising sails,  and they do offer cruising sails as a speciality.     Jeckells used to make GP14 sails,  although not in recent years so far as I am aware,  and outside GP14s they are well known for both their cruising sails and their racing sails.

I have the impression that many of the popular GP14 sailmakers of today produce only racing sails.   Very good they are,  for that purpose,  but out and out racing sails do not make good cruising sails.

Beyond that,  look for copious reinforcing,  and a flatter cut than most racing sails.

Oliver

Well I did have a Set of sails 🙁 there sold now…

There is still those on ebay though 🙂

I have a set of old sails that I got with my boat. they are in quite poor condition there is a hole at the top of the main. nothing serious mind and I’m sure it could be easily fixed.

there are plenty of rust stains on them too (I had bought oxylic acid to clean them but I havnt got round to it) , from where they have been put away wet.

no battens

and the jib is a genoa lol

but they are still functional and I have sailed with them.

also the main has reef points too.

There is also a set of sails listed on ebay currently.

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http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gp14-Sails-Genoa-Main-And-Spinnaker-/161834563791?hash=item25ae1778c

starting bid of £65

• This reply was modified 9 years, 2 months ago by wardy.