Dacron is the DuPont trade name for man-made Polyester fiber. This fiber is the foundation of traditional woven sailcloth. Dacron fibers are also used in cruising laminates and polyester laminated sailcloth where the use of expensive, low stretch, man made aramid fibers is not necessary.
After much testing and research, the sail designers at Schurr Sails have started using Challenge Dacron on most of their cruising sails. While the leading cloth suppliers have nearly identical weaving processes, Challenge has the only fabric line that is especially woven for soft, durable and easy-to-handle cruising sails. This line of Marblehead Weave Dacron is made by using high quality Dacron 52 fibers tightly woven to reduce stretch in all directions, thus eliminating the need for the heavy resination that makes sailcloth stiff and hard to handle. The final product is a low-stretch, easy-to-handle sail that provides maximum performance and durability.
Of the four major sailcloth suppliers to the U.S. market (Challenge, Bainbridge, Dimension and Contender), Challenge is the only one to offer American made sailcloth woven from DupontŪ Dacron 52 fibers; all of the other suppliers use imported polyester.
When it comes to racing sails, Schurr Sails still has very good results with the ultra hard HTP coated polyesters from Dimension/Polyant. All of our racing Flying Scot sails are made with a variant of this material.
