Cruising Sails
Island Planet Sails is owned and staffed by cruisers, so our passion for cruising is no surprise, but we know cruising means different things to different sailors. For some, it may mean sailing from one rally to the next. Other sailors may simply enjoy gunkholing in Chesapeake bay. Whatever way you choose to cruise, Island Planet Sails can provide you with the sail to do it.
Like many sailmakers, we offer different levels of cloth and finish quality. However, unlike other sailmakers, we take the time to carefully listen and ask the right questions to determine what is truly the best solution for the customer, and we only construct sails from high-quality material. We select only the best material for our sail construction, and our production loft has one of the most rigorous cloth inspection programs in the industry. Our collective years of sailing and sailmaking experience, along with our dedication to excellence, allow us to build a high-quality sail custom-made for your needs.
Dacron
Our Dacron sails are made with Marblehead from Challenge Sailcloth. Marblehead is made with two of the best base yarns available, Dacron 52 by Dupont and 1W70 by Honeywell. The fabric is heat-set several times, methodically shrunk at high temperature to tighten the weave, prefatigued and calendered at high tonnage to further stabilize the bias. Marblehead is the most stretch resistant Dacron and will give many years of trouble-free service to voyaging sailors.
Benefits of a Dacron Sail
Cruising Laminates
Custom Axis
Laminate
Benefits of a CAL Sail
This is a sail that is hard to say no to. Made of Vectran, our CAL sails are 5 times stronger than steel, water repellant and have a stretch resistance comparable to Kevlar 29 without the loss of strength when flexed. The protective taffeta on each side of the CAL sail makes handling easy, and the anti-UV film in these sails is composed of the same ingredients that make up the UV block in modern car windows. These hand-crafted sails are strung and laminated in environmentally clean and climate controlled rooms on state of the art equipment.
Matrix
Membrane
Benefits of a MXL Sail
Our Matrix Membrane (MXL) line offers the performance-oriented cruiser a wide range of material choices from polyester to carbon. Typically we use a protective taffeta on both sides of the sail, however, those sailors to looking to maximize performance may choose a single taffeta or taffeta core. Our Wide Panel MXL sails carry an industry leading 3-year warranty.
Radial Core
Laminate
Benefits of a RCL Sail
Our Radial Core Laminate (RCL) is designed for the cruising sailor who not only demands a low stretch sail but wants it to be very lightweight. This is great for sailors who make frequent sail changes. The internal lightweight Taffeta combined with a special laminating process produces a much softer hand than a normal film-on-film sail while extending the sail’s longevity and making it a ‘quieter.’
RCL is the only radial CORE cloth on the market for traditional tri-radial construction.