Understanding Sailcloth

Low Aspect Sailcloth

Challenge makes two versions of many of its super premium & premium woven dacrons. We engineer different constructions to align the strength of the fibers with the load direction of the sail. One is not better than the other. They are both engineered for a specific application. A Low Aspect Sail is short and wide. The loading directions are not parallel, and run more toward the center of the sail. Low Aspect cloths generally have larger warp yarns than in a high aspect fabric, and while the fill yarn is bigger than the warp yarn, they are closer to equal size than in a High Aspect Cloth. There is more even crimp between the two fibers. The even crimp allows the yarns to grab each other, this creating a strong resistance to bias stretch.

What does low aspect sailcloth look like?

Low aspect sailcloth has larger warp yarns than fill yarns, however the two fibers are proportionally closer to the same size than a high aspect cloth. The proportional sizes of the years allow them to grab onto each other generating a greater resistance to bias stretch. The strength of the bias is matched with the more bias-prone loading direction of the sail (as seen in the picture to the left).

High Aspect Sailcloth

Challenge makes two versions of many of its super premium & premium woven dacrons. We engineer different constructions to align the strength of the fibers with the load direction of the sail. One is not better than the other. They are both engineered for a specific application. A high aspect sail is tall and thin. It generates the most load along the leech. A High Aspect cloth generally has larger fill yarns and is very strong in the fill direction. The warp yarns almost touch each other in the weave, creating tunnels in the construction which keeps the fill yarns geometrically straight and low stretch. We design constructions to align the strength of the fibers with the load direction of the sail. As seen below, a high aspect sail has a different loading direction than a low aspect sail. They would use different cloth.

What does high aspect cloth look like?

High Aspect sailcloth has very large fill yarns and is very strong in the fill direction. There is a high quantity smaller warp yarns that are crimped. As shown in the picture to the right, the warp yarns (vertical) almost touch each other, creating tunnels which keep the fill yarns geometrically straight, which generates low stretch.