New Cal 34 Racing Mainsail

Hello Cal folks, I have not posted for a while but am still actively racing and cruising my Cal 34 Shady Lady. We took 2nd in the Tampa Bay area's Suncoast Boat of the Year competition for a combination of all the local regattas 2011-2012. Won a few and lost a few but held our own fairly well, especially considering that the class we race in, Racer/Cruiser, is all larger boats and they all owe us time, with the ratings spread from 84 to 186. Recently I had a new high tech mainsail built by Sail Technology, a local loft in St Petersburg. I am loving my new sail. It is light weight and has awesome shape. We are definitely faster with it. The two top battens are full and it has a roach that protrudes well beyond the backstay, maximizing sail area. The material is a dacron base with carbon fibers bonded to each side by a mylar laminate. The sail is built with traditional horizontal panels but since the material itself is far too light weight to stand the loading, additional carbon fibers are taped to the outside after the panels are constructed into a single sail. The result is lighter than a standard all-dacron sail, and the shape is locked in for life. I ran into the sail maker the other day at a regatta and he told me that through an internal mistake another Cal 34 main was built using the exact same technology. They were intending to build one for a C&C and inadvertently pulled up the wrong measurements! That sail was nearly completed before the mistake was noticed. Due to the technology, and the fact that there is virtually no other boat this sail will fit on, this new sail could only work for a Cal 34. As you know, the Cal 34 is a low aspect ratio rig so it is unlikely another boat can use this sail. And due to the permanent carbon taping, it is not worth it to try to recut this sail to fit anything else. And there are no other Cal 34s being raced around here. If you race a Cal 34 and want a deal on a new mainsail I am sure this loft would be happy to make you an offer you would find very attractive. (like having this high-tech jewel for around the same cost as a standard dacron sail or maybe even less) Note that since the rigs are different, this sail would only work on a Cal 34, not a Cal 2-34 or a Cal 3-34. (sometimes wrongly referred to as MKII and MKIII.) Also, it would help if you have a backstay adjuster which can be easily slacked for tacking as this is sometimes necessary with the aggressive roach. Here is the contact info: http://sail-tech.com/ ps: the Racer/Cruiser Class is something we came up with on the Florida West Coast. We use spinnakers but we do distance courses as opposed to bouys. That way we can race our older boats on a less aggressive race course and not have to do windward-leewards. We generally get to put up a sail and leave it up for a while instead of banging bouys every ten minutes and having to hoist this and douse that. Navigation is a factor. And we get to have lunch while we are racing instead of waiting for a short break between races (which the higher-rated boats never tend to get). I also never posted anything about my recent modification of two years. I cut out the transom and created a drop-door with an integral swim ladder. It's awesome! We went from a single to a split backstay. Now we have a fantastic swimmer-friendly stern that makes boarding from the water a breeze. I also got rid of the cockpit coaming boards and extended the winch islands forward and aft so the cockpit is now all glass. Now there is no issue with water migrating from the deck to a puddle on the leeward side of the cockpit when heeled and taking spray. Sorry, no pics available. Just enjoying it. ~smile~ Steve Honour

Steve, Good to hear from you and good on you. I think the CAL 34 is by far, one of the nicest designs in the CAL line. Everytime I see a CAL 34 sail into the harbor it gets me out of my seat and I watch her sail by. I am glad to hear about your racing and wins. On the Left coast they have been converted to cruisers and hardly compete anymore. I am really glad you posted and would like to hear more. We have a bunch of CAL 34s that race but are not very competitive against the racier boats. We are trying to develop a cruising class to make them more competitive. Tell us more. Randy (future owner of a CAL 34) CAL 2-29 Out Patient Channel ISlands CA From: steve honour <st… [at] yahoo.com> To: Cal_boats <Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, October 8, 2012 3:37 PM Subject: [Cal_Boats] New Cal 34 Racing Mainsail Hello Cal folks, I have not posted for a while but am still actively racing and cruising my Cal 34 Shady Lady. We took 2nd in the Tampa Bay area's Suncoast Boat of the Year competition for a combination of all the local regattas 2011-2012. Won a few and lost a few but held our own fairly well, especially considering that the class we race in, Racer/Cruiser, is all larger boats and they all owe us time, with the ratings spread from 84 to 186. Recently I had a new high tech mainsail built by Sail Technology, a local loft in St Petersburg. I am loving my new sail. It is light weight and has awesome shape. We are definitely faster with it. The two top battens are full and it has a roach that protrudes well beyond the backstay, maximizing sail area. The material is a dacron base with carbon fibers bonded to each side by a mylar laminate. The sail is built with traditional horizontal panels but since the material itself is far too light weight to stand the loading, additional carbon fibers are taped to the outside after the panels are constructed into a single sail. The result is lighter than a standard all-dacron sail, and the shape is locked in for life. I ran into the sail maker the other day at a regatta and he told me that through an internal mistake another Cal 34 main was built using the exact same technology. They were intending to build one for a C&C and inadvertently pulled up the wrong measurements! That sail was nearly completed before the mistake was noticed. Due to the technology, and the fact that there is virtually no other boat this sail will fit on, this new sail could only work for a Cal 34. As you know, the Cal 34 is a low aspect ratio rig so it is unlikely another boat can use this sail. And due to the permanent carbon taping, it is not worth it to try to recut this sail to fit anything else. And there are no other Cal 34s being raced around here. If you race a Cal 34 and want a deal on a new mainsail I am sure this loft would be happy to make you an offer you would find very attractive. (like having this high-tech jewel for around the same cost as a standard dacron sail or maybe even less) Note that since the rigs are different, this sail would only work on a Cal 34, not a Cal 2-34 or a Cal 3-34. (sometimes wrongly referred to as MKII and MKIII.) Also, it would help if you have a backstay adjuster which can be easily slacked for tacking as this is sometimes necessary with the aggressive roach. Here is the contact info: http://sail-tech.com/ ps: the Racer/Cruiser Class is something we came up with on the Florida West Coast. We use spinnakers but we do distance courses as opposed to bouys. That way we can race our older boats on a less aggressive race course and not have to do windward-leewards. We generally get to put up a sail and leave it up for a while instead of banging bouys every ten minutes and having to hoist this and douse that. Navigation is a factor. And we get to have lunch while we are racing instead of waiting for a short break between races (which the higher-rated boats never tend to get). I also never posted anything about my recent modification of two years. I cut out the transom and created a drop-door with an integral swim ladder. It's awesome! We went from a single to a split backstay. Now we have a fantastic swimmer-friendly stern that makes boarding from the water a breeze. I also got rid of the cockpit coaming boards and extended the winch islands forward and aft so the cockpit is now all glass. Now there is no issue with water migrating from the deck to a puddle on the leeward side of the cockpit when heeled and taking spray. Sorry, no pics available. Just enjoying it. ~smile~ Steve Honour