Mainsail X-Drive

for cruising sailboatscarbonfull-batten

An Italia 12.98 with X-Drive carbon full-batten mainsail and roller/furling genoa. The base laminate has a white taffeta on the side opposite the fibers, while the main has taffeta applied over the fibers on the leech for extra durability. An example of the nearly full coverage of carbon fibers on a mainsail. Carbon fiber is the highest performance yarn used in sailmaking. As seen below, carbon yarns are at the top of the chart in three out of four ways to measure their performance. Carbon fiber’s resistance to stretch is three times greater that S-Glass yarns, which are, in tern, three times more stretch resistant than polyester yarns.