Tape-Drive® Sails
Speed, Versatility, Durability
UK Sailmakers
has dedicated over two decadse to improving and refining what are now
the most durable racing sails on the market - Tape-Drive® sails. The
resulting advances in design, construction and materials have made them
the versatile choice for both racers and cruisers looking for sails with
dramatically extended peak performance life. Tape-Drive sails hold
their shape after years of hard sailing. If you race, cruise or do both,
Tape-Drive sails offer you a unique combination of speed, versatility
and durability found in no other sails.
- Two-part construction process - structural strength and the skin that defines a sail's three dimensional shape.
- A grid of high strength, low stretch tapes carries the primary structural loads of a Tape-Drive sail.
- A three-dimensionally shaped membrane - the fabric or skin - produces aerodynamic shape.
-
The tapes, with a breaking strength of up to 1900 pounds, radiate
across the sail with a heavier concentration at the predicted high load
areas - the corners and along the leech.
- Tape-Drive® sails are light weight without compromising performance or durability.
-
Tape-Drive® sails have extended wind ranges - able to lift and fill in
light air and still hold designed shape when highly loaded.
Carries the Load
Computers
generate load paths arching between the corners of a sail Tape-Drive® yarns conforms to these load paths.
-
On many Tape-Drive® sails, the membrane includes an extra layer of
yarns at an angle to the horizontal. Called an X-Ply or Tri-Axial Yarn,
they further enhance the off-tape-line strength of the sail.
|
|
- The skin laminate is uniform throughout the sail. There is no differential stretch or shrinkage from panel to panel.
- There are no load bearing seams to creep, distort or worse yet, fail.
The result is a sail that holds its designed shape and stays smooth longer than any other high tech sail on the market.
Tape-Drive® is the only sail that comes with a guarantee against catastrophic failure. Depending
on the size of your boat and its sail requirements, your UKS ailmakers
will help you select the appropriate membrane material from a
wide variety of custom designed laminates using scrims of aramid,
Spectra, Pentex, fiberglass or polyester yarns. 
|