For well-made, durable, and inexpensive cruising sails, choose UK-Halsey's dacron sails. (Note: Dacron™ is Dupont's trademark for its version of woven polyester yarns. We use the term in its generic form like Xerox is used in place of photocopy; thus, we use the lower case "D" when writing the word.)

Dacron cruising sails are the heart of our business. Even though we mostly advertise our leading edge and patented construction methods, half the sails our worldwide group makes are traditional woven polyester cruising sails. Cruising sailors like dacron for its durability. No material is tougher. Many of our customers come in with sails over 10 years old looking to "get one more season out them." That's because woven polyester stands up to flogging and the sun's UV rays better than any material used in sailmaking.

The trade-off you make by choosing the durability of dacron is performance. While a dacron sail will stay in one piece for more than a decade, it starts loosing its aerodynamic shape over time because polyester yarn is relatively stretchy compared to high tech yarns like Kevlar and carbon fiber. Blown-out, poorly shaped sails increase heeling and reduce the distance you can sail in a given amount of time.

Dacron cloth is most suited for cross-cut designs, which is the same construction system used in our high tech Tape-Drive® sails. The marriage between UK-Halsey's proprietary AccuCut CAD/CAM design program , cross-cut technology and dacron produces the fastest sails possible. Fast sails increase your cruising range, or they get you to you next anchorage faster so you'll have more time for swimming, socializing or plain relaxing.

But don't make the mistake of assuming that all dacron sails are the same. That's like thinking that all wood frame houses are built the same. The difference is in the construction details. The reason why our sails may be more expensive is that we put more into a sail. The following is how we make all our dacron sails.

Standard Dacron Cruising Mainsail Features:

* Custom design for your boat and the conditions you sail in.
* Premium sail cloth made by the best manufactures in the world.
* Designed with our proprietary Accucut software, which ensures that your sails will perform well.
* Computer cut, which guarantees your sail will be made to exact specifications.
* Largest possible roach without the sail overlapping the backstay
* Fiberglass tapered leech battens or pultruded full-length battens
* Double velco flap batten pocket enclosure
* Batten pockets attached to a slab before sewn to the sail
* Aluminum headboard o Webbed on stainless steel tack and clew rings
* Loose footed design for better sail shape. Loose foot is stiffened with wide bolt rope to reduce "chatter".
* Two rows of stitching on all seams, three or more rows on bigger boats
* UV resistant thread for seam stitching
* Cunningham
* Telltales at every batten
* Adjustable leech line
* Sail ties
* Sail Bag
* One year materials and workmanship warranty.

Options are numerous, but the most important one has to do with the luff attachment hardware. Only an experienced group of sailmakers sharing the latest information can recommend the best hardware for your boat to ensure your mainsail goes up and down easily.

Standard Passagemaker I Genoa Features:

* Custom design for your boat and the conditions you sail in.
* Premium sail cloth made by the best manufacturers in the world.
* Designed with our proprietary Accucut software, which ensures that your sails will perform well.
* Computer cut, which guarantees your sail will be made to exact specifications.
* Shape foam luff for better roller reefing and furling. Foam does not absorb water.
* Over-sized corner patches for better shape holding and more durability
* Reefing reinforcements on foot and leech to prevent the sail from distorting when partially rolled out
* Marked reef points so that you can standardize settings for sheet blocks when reefed
* Webbing loops at head and tack for better roller furling o Webbed on stainless steel clew rings
* Wide UV covers on the leech and foot to ensure the sail is well covered when rolled up. Covers can be made from Sunbrella, which comes a in a wide range of colors or lighter weight UV dacron
* Sacrificial UV covers are not an integral part of the sail to facilitate replacement in the future to inexpensively increase the life of the sail.
* UV cover covers webbing at clew, tack and head
* Two rows of stitching on all seams, three or more rows on bigger boats
* UV resistant thread for seam stitching
* Telltales
* Leech and foot line