To F18 community
Dear sailor friends,
You may know sailcloth market is rather tight at the moment, with major consequences for some of the cloths from our list:
- 1. Prices are rising
- 2. Some popular Pentex cloths are out of stock or difficult to obtain, strongly restraining sail building capacities, so the reason for us to reinstate the DP 205 on the list prior to the 2023 Worlds in Travemünde, on one of our popular sailmakers request.
- 3. There is a potential risk, although not certain, for Pentex to be abandoned by fiber producers in the medium term.
Having said that, and as a result, there’s one thing to be grateful for : some “exotic” fibers have become cost competitive, opening new perspectives, as we could even get cheaper prices, up to 40%! (to be confirmed).
Both Dimension Polyant, Contender and Challenge for example are working on, or are already producing some promising cloths.
So we started large exchanges within the Sailmakers & Sailcloth producers group, to investigate on possible introduction of new material in our official Cloth List.
Whatever the case, it must be clear that true affordability worldwide, cost, resistance, durability and protection of the current fleet will remain at the core of our development aims.
We will continue to engage with all interested parties on this issue, and will keep you informed.
Meanwhile, and in full agreement with our sailmakers and sailcloth producers partners, we limited Cloth List update to classic materials, of similar or even cheaper cost range, and a draft updated list of cloths permitted to build F18 sails has been issued on 1st March and submitted to the World Council for approval, potential enforcement date being 1st April 2024.
Wishing you all the best for 2024 season,
On behalf of IF18CA Executive Committee,
Olivier BOVYN