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The remarkable performance, durability, shapeholding and lightness of North's Marathon 3DL sails is the result of advanced sailmaking technology that may be unfamiliar to many cruising sailors. Following are answers to questions most commonly asked by our cruising customers about Marathon 3DL sails.
Why were Marathon 3DL
sails developed?
The Marathon 3DL project originated with the belief that
North could create a cruising product that combined the performance and
shapeholding that 3DL sails are famous for with the durability of a Soft
NorLam™ or SR/Gatorback™ Spectra sail. It took years of development and
over 14 months of ocean testing, but the Marathon development team has
created a truly revolutionary cruising sail.
How are the Marathon
sails different from any other 3DL sails?
At its core, Marathon is essentially a 3DL sail, but there
are some important differences. First, specially coated, standard modulus
yarns are used instead of high modulus aramid, and the yarn layouts are
engineered specifically for cruising. Second, a woven polyester composite
called a TF™ taffeta/film is bonded to both sides of the sail, dramatically
improving durability and UV resistance.
What is a "TF" film?
TF" is the name for a customized 1.7oz. NorLam taffeta/film
that North developed for Marathon 3DL. The TF film not only protects the
internal fiber matrix of the sail from chafe, puncture, UV degradation
and off axis stretch, it also contains double the normal amount of titanium
dioxide UV screening agents plus a fungicide to discourage mildew growth.
To further enhance UV protection, each structural yarn is individually
coated with titanium dioxide as well. TF films have proven to dramatically
improve the durability of a 3DL laminate.
What is special about
the new cruising yarn layouts?
North designers have tailored the headsail layouts for
cruising by putting more yarn into the leech and foot to correspond with
secondary head and tack locations for roller reefing. The mainsail layouts
have also been optimized to place more yarn in highly loaded sail slide
areas, at reef locations and at batten ends at the leech, which allows
for moderately aggressive roach profiles. For most cruisers, vang and
mainsheet tension is not as carefully monitored as in a racing situation.
There is simply no better system for addressing mainsail and headsail
reefing loads than 3DL.
A Marathon 3DL cruising main will hold its designed
shape reefed just as effectively as when fully hoisted, and the base laminate
is not subject to the permanent distortion that can happen with a reefed
paneled sail. Marathon 3DL sails are the best reefing sails in the world.
What does the sail look like?
Cosmetically, Marathon 3DL sails appear similar to conventional
woven polyester sails with the structural yarns faintly visible when sunlight
shines through the sail. From off the boat the Marathon sails look elegant
and subtly high-tech. From on board, they are every bit as smooth and
well-shaped as a racing 3DL sail.
Are Marathon 3DL
sails right for all cruising sailors?
The Marathon 3DL product is a purpose-designed performance
cruising sail, and as such will appeal most to cruising sailors who appreciate
speed and what it represents; for instance, shorter passages, improved
weather strategy options, or being able to work yourself off a lee shore.
For sailors who understand and enjoy active sail shape adjustment, there
is nothing else on the market today that can compare with the Marathon
3DL product. However, these sails are not for every cruising sailor. For
a true long-range cruiser, North's SR™ Spectra, Gatorback™ Spectra, or
Offshore Spec NorDac™ construction may be more appropriate. North's premium
paneled Spectra and Dacron products will provide more total miles of sailing
than Marathon, but a lower level of performance.
Marathon 3DL are complicated, relatively expensive sails. The relatively high price compared to paneled polyester cruising sails may not fit the budget for some recreational sailors. Marathon 3DL sails are limited to luff lengths less than 30 meters. For luffs longer than 90 feet (30 meters), you should talk to your North Sails representative about a custom 3DL laminate with a TF taffeta/film option.
How durable are Marathon
3DL sails?
Durability is a measure of a sail's resistance to the
everyday forms of torture that we subject them to: flogging, rig chafe,
creasing due to roller furling and mainsail flaking, ripping due to snags,
shock loads on accidental maneuvers, prolonged flogging and mistakes during
reefing or unreefing. In all of these categories the Marathon product
has proven to be as tough as our best laminated paneled sails (Soft NorLam,
SR Spectra or Gatorback Spectra). Presumably a woven Dacron sail is the
most rugged of all sail materials, but if a sailhandling error results
in enough impact to damage a Marathon 3DL, Spectra or Soft NorLam sail,
that same event would probably inflict similar damage on a woven Dacron
sail as well.
How long can Marathon
3DL sails last compared to other cruising sails?
This is always a tricky one to answer because sail life can be
described in terms of miles, hours or seasons of use before the fabric
or laminate starts to fail. Just like a car, mileage is a factor... but
there are hard miles and easy miles. Based on test data, we expect Marathon
3DL sails to deliver upwards of 2,000 hours of service, compared to about
2,500 hours for Spectra and 4,000 hours for premium Polyester. For most
owners, this represents three full seasons of use from a Marathon 3DL
sail. When it comes to shapeholding, however, Marathon 3DL is in a league
of its own... superior to a Spectra sail and far superior to a woven polyester
sail. At the end of it's lifespan, a Marathon 3DL sail should have virtually
the same shape as the first day it was hoisted.
How well tested are
Marathon sails?
Prior to introduction, prototype sails were built and
tested on a wide range of boat types including the following:
1. Aerodyne 38 large roach mainsail and furling jib: @ 10,000 miles of use over a 24 month period with no structural problems.
2. Swan 44 Mainsail and furling jib: @ 2,400 miles use over a 17-month period with no structural problems.
3. Open 60 large roach mainsail and Solent jib: @ 20,000 miles use over 5-month period with no structural problems.
In the first 18 months of production hundreds of Marathon 3DL sails have been delivered and put to the test by sailors ranging from daytrippers to high latitude circumnavigators and not one significant structural or shape holding issue has been reported.
