Get more for your cruising dollar with 'platinum-drive'

by Adam Loory, UK-Halsey Sailmakers on 18 Dec 2009 Sails can be expensive, so durability is key to getting your money’s worth. The corollary that cheap sails are not durable is just as true. Just ask Larry Rouen, the owner of the Dawn 41 Nepenthe.

He ordered sails in 1997, just before two of his teenagers were getting ready to go off to college. He said that he needed sails that would last eight years – the time it would take the two to graduate, since tuition would trump boat expenses.

And Larry wanted his sails to not only stay in one piece for eight years, he wanted them to be fast as well since he races every Thursday night in the summer. UK-Halsey sold Platinum-Drive sails to Nepenthe, which are Tape-Drive sails made with a Spectra laminate.

Well, eight years came and passed, and his son and daughter entered and graduated from different universities while his sails kept on performing. And the sails kept going and going, like the pink Energizer bunny.

After 11 full seasons of racing once a week and cruising every weekend, Larry bought the exact kind of sails he did 11 years previously – Platinum-Drive. As he did with his old sails, he is winning with his new sails – in fact in 2009 he won his division in Thursday night series and he won his club’s annual championship.

Larry’s good friend and fellow club member Jim Gerson heard Larry rave for years about his sails and when it came time to buy new sails for his Contest 44 Celeritas, Jim opted for Platinum-Drive as well.

He has only sailed with his new sails three times so far, but he is impressed with how much lighter the sails are and how much closer to the wind he can point.

While Larry wanted one set of sails with which he could race and cruise, Jim wanted his cruising boat to be a better sailing boat.

Celaritas is a 30,000 pound, wing-keeled, furling-mast boat with a bow thruster, yet sailing well for years and years is what Jim wanted.

In fact, the furling mainsail has vertical battens to give the sail a good shape and positive roach. He is happy that his sails perform as well as they look.