After this puppie someone gave me at work !

that aint monofilm thats scrim mylar ,great when it's brand new ,crap once it starts to delaminate,,,,,,,,, I'd say mid to late 80's.

throw it in the bin it's had it...

I do recall super light wind mylar spinakers in the md to late 70's in americas cup, then those laminated sails mid to late 80's, we got the laminated stuff on landyachts in the early 90's, I have a sail that was used twice from then and is useless now .
. the problem we have with monofilm is if you leave it rolled up in our hot sheds for a few months it can snap when you get it out

I've still got 2 of those "WaveFoil Pro" wave sails, a 5.8 and 5.2 bought new around '87-'88 (after my previous set of 4 sails were stolen). Beautiful performance sail in its day and the scrim mylar was a new concept too. 5.8 used heavily for 2 years and started delaminating after a season, 5.2 never used. Sat in storage for 20 years and brought out again last year, 5.8 was shedding its mylar in big sheets. 5.2 used for for the first time for 2 days as a learners sail recently and the mylar came away in sheets.

The Gaastra 5.8 it is still a very very light sail compared to a circa '05 5.8 Ezzy LE Wave sail that I've also got. Interesting I laid the Gaastra over the 5.8 Ezzy and the mast curves, foot and lower leech were nearly the same shape.

The hassle I had with these sails was when derigging you need to remove the lower batten so you can roll 'em up...how many times that lower batten fell out of the bag drove me nuts! We were told to remove the upper battens when rolled but most just pulled 'em off the securing strap.

Great sail though. I'm going to peel the remainder of the mylar off and use them, interesting to see how long it would still hold its shape without it. Not long I guess, the dacron is pretty thin.

Haircut said...

When was mono film invented...

i feel your pain! many of us want to go back in time and assassinate the inventor (along with the inventor push-up bras and t-shirt bras)

The first windsurfing sail brand to use Monofilm was F2 approx 1989 then NP then Gaastra.

Haircut said...

(along with the inventor push-up bras and t-shirt bras)

Bring back the 70's, no bras

sausage said...

firiebob said...

Haircut said...

(along with the inventor push-up bras and t-shirt bras)

Bring back the 70's, no bras

Bet you wish you'd never burnt yours Bob

I think there's monofilm on Dunky's sail? all those stickers remind me of a grey nomads caravan.

Rattlehead said...

Chris 249 said...

In the '50s or early '60s it was used experimentally in dinghy and yacht sails.

Despite all the hype, windsurfing normally lags behind boats in development as far as I can see.

I think I used a sail exactly like that (but in better condition!) at Gerroa last weekend - it rocked, with great low-down power.

think your about 20 years off ,americas cup and 18 ft skiffs didn't start using mylar till the late 70's early 80's ,,these are cutting edge classes so I doubt the these exotic materials were used in the 50's-60's

I'm thinking about sails pictured in an Australian Sailing article about '80. There was a pic of a "Cottontail" class dinghy (a class I've never heard of since) and a 12 with monofilm sails. I'm fairly sure it said that the sails in the pics were experiments of the '60s or late '50s, but the mag's in storage.

A fortnight or so ago I found an Amateur Yacht Research Society magazine of around 1965 with a monofilm sail on a small tri. It's in Sydney Uni; I have others around that date but not that particular mag.

The "garbage bag" Mylar sails didn't come in 'till 1977 (Enterprise in the US AC trials) to '78 (3/4 world champ Pendragon) as you say.

The yachties were experimenting with alternatives to dacron early on - in the 1974 One Ton Cup out of Torquay, UK, Chris Bouzaid (NZ Hood sails head) used a kevlar mainsail on his Peterson "Hati IV". It tore at the foot in one race.

Mylar was around as early as 1952 and the Dupont family that made it were mad yachties - some have said that's why boat sailers had good cloth because for a company the size of Dupont to invest in sailcloth design was not really a business decision.

The 18s and AC boats are not always as leading-edge as everyone assumes. For example, 505s and FDs and IOR boats experimented with carbon masts about '78/79 - I can find no record of 18s using carbon spars at the time and 12s certainly didn't.

Similarly, Parker (UK) had carbon-reinforced Contenders and 505s in 1971. The O-Jolle (predecessor to the Finn) was made in Airex foam in about '52, many years before any skiff or AC boat was made in foam sandwich.