Sustainable sails

While sustainability is becoming, quite rightly, a significantly bigger issue in most people’s consciousness, it seems particularly important to consider the most significant elements which are probably most regularly replaced on most sailing boats: the sails.

A fundamental problem when considering the use of fibres made from the recycling of old sails is that, in doing so, the overall performance of the new recycled material “drops off a cliff,” according to Alastair Shires of sailcloth manufacturer Contender UK. “In the case of polyester, nylon and carbon sail cloth, the strength and UV properties are vastly compromised by recycling,” he told me. “Furthermore the resins and polymers that are used for the finishing of sailcloth present their own difficulties for recycling. The recycling of sailcloth and the use of recycled and recyclable materials present us with a real challenge, but one that is being worked on.”

Signs of progress

But there is certainly some progress. For instance, One Sails have developed a product range called 4T FORTE which can be recycled. This was originally developed – in partnership with a family run Tuscan industrial textile