.5 oz Spinnaker

[John Donewar]

I've been looking for a source of lightweight spinnaker for a tarp project. Will this fill the bill?

http://www.sailrite.com/Ripstop-Nylon-5oz-White-60

Party On ! 2010

Newton

[Rog Tallbloke]

Gossamer Gear use spinnaker at twice that weight, 0.99oz.

You may consider taking some backup shelter while you test the durability.

[John Donewar]

Rog,

The same people also have this material.

http://www.sailrite.com/Airx-700N-Ripstop-1-1oz-White-60

Possibly the same as GG ?

Does anyone know of other suppliers of Spinnaker fabric.

My current tarp is 1.1 oz silnylon which I believe is 1.3 oz after coating. The difference of .31 oz per yard using .99 oz in @ 6 yards of fabric works out to @ 2 oz or less of weight reduction for this project.

I enjoy the construction portion of the MYOG projects but I'm wonderinjg about the benefits being outweighed by the efforts in this one.

Party On ! 2010

Newton

[Colin Krusor]

It isn't actually 1/2 oz/yard, I promise. Among sail fabrics, kite fabrics, and RC plane covering materials there are a glut of woven products claiming to be in the 0.5 oz/yd neighborhood, and none of them are anywhere near that (4-5 momme silk is the only exception I know of). In my search for lightweight fabrics I have found that "0.5 oz" fabrics typically weigh between 0.8 and 1.9 oz/yard. I just ordered some several weeks ago from a supplier that assured me that 1/2 oz was accurate, and the material weighs 1.7 oz/yd. Order a sample and weigh it before you make a bigger purchase.

[JM Addleman]

I'm not sure if something like that will be waterproof enough for you. It sure is light and cheap, though.

[James Klein]

I believe this is .5oz / sailmakers yd which means it is actually closer to .63oz / yd^2. Still pretty light though, I would like to see how strong it is though.

[Nathan Baker]

John – Prolite Gear carries the spinnaker that GG uses if you are interested

[John Donewar]

James,

>>I believe this is .5oz / sailmakers yd<<

It may be but the website states the width and material as;

Airx 700N Ripstop 1.1oz White 60"

Ripstop Nylon .5oz White 60"

Would something sold in sailmakers yards be 60" ?

Party On ! 2010

Newton

[John Donewar]

Nathan,

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Party On ! 2010

Newton

Edit: I found 0.95 oz/square yard after coating on ProLite's site but they are fresh out.

Newton :-b

[Colin Krusor]

It isn't 1/2 oz per sailmaker's yard, either. I don't mean to rain on this parade, but woven nylon and polyester fabrics lighter than 0.7 oz/yard don't exist. Montbell uses 7 denier nylon (with no coating) in some of their products that is about 0.73 oz/yard, and a polyester kite fabric (Icarex) was available in the past that was 0.74 oz/yard before coating, but "1/2 oz" spinnaker fabrics are typically over 0.85 oz/yard, and often quite a bit more. If you find a fabric that is in fact lighter than 0.7 oz/yard (or even lighter than 0.8), send some to me and I'll eat it.

[Roger Caffin]

With respect to all the comments about how 0.5 oz fabric is always heavier than that, there are TWO things to remember:

A 'sailmakers yard' is much less than 36" long – but I have no idea why.

The weight quoted is for the raw uncoated untreated fabric, and adding any treatment always adds weight.

You should also remember two other things:

'Zero porosity' does NOT imply any degree of waterproofness at all.

Coated spinnaker fabric is often stiff, rustles like mad in any wind, and creases when folded up – and leaks even worse at the creases.

Yep, get a sample and TEST IT.

Cheers

[nick beaudoin]

Hi guys,
I'm a sailmaker and the lightest cloth available today are:

Contender Superlite 40 (nylon)
Contender Superlite 50 (nylon)

and a can't remember the maker possible Contender but we have a .5oz Sil coated Polyester. Very light but poor tear strength.

I've just built a copy of a Hex 3 out of Dynakote 75. This is a great sil nylon.
After some mods I will be posting some pics.

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Nick

Yes, made by Contender. The Supelite 40 comes in white, the Supalite 50 comes in a range of colours. Both leak at quite a low pressure unfortunately, and both are very expensive.

The Dynakote is a bit better and a bit less expensive – I will NOT say 'cheaper'.

The big problem is that contender will not guarantee the pressure rating, and it varies between batches.

Cheers

[nick beaudoin]

I used my shelter( dynakote 75) on anzac weekend in an all night rain in the Blue Mountains and there was no misting. There was minimal condesation too.

I've found that the difference between Lots are minimal.

I'm considering applying a product called Holmenkol to my shelter. It is a two part water based agent, that is sponged on to help water bead. We use it on 18' Skiff spins with much success.

Lucky for me a get cloth dirt cheap.
nick

[James Klein]

The weight they are quoting is per sailmakers yard this is independant of the width of the fabric they sell it at. As others have said it is unlikely that .5oz/slmkryd is the actual finished weight. Lightweight sil is often quoted as 1.1oz/yd when infact the finished weight is ~1.3oz/yd.
James

[John Donewar]

I got curious.

sailmaker's yard:

An English/American unit of area for measuring the weight of sailcloth. It is 28.5 inches wide by 36 inches long. To say a piece of cloth is 6.5 ounce means a piece measuring 28.5" by 36" would weigh 6.5 ounces. This rather strange "yard" seems to be a remnant from the days when it was universally agreed that no one would ever be able to build a loom wider than 28.5 inches which would weave sail cloth. (Today 54 inches is common.)

Party On ! 2010

Newton

[Roger Caffin]

Hi Nick

"Holmenkol coatings are made from tiny nano particles which bond at a molecular level to the surface of the material they are being applied to. During this process the particles organize themselves to completely cover the surface."

And most refer to it a as 'wax coating'. Some of the literature says it goes very well over a fluorocarbon wax. But we know silicone and fluorocarbon finishes are largely incompatible. I suspect the wax won't bond to silnylon, but I would LOVE to be proved wrong!

Hum … I will be interesting in what you find. Update please!

Cheers

[John Donewar]

Roger,

>>Coated spinnaker fabric is often stiff, rustles like mad in any wind, and creases when folded up – and leaks even worse at the creases.<<

Help me out here please. Why does anyone use spinnaker for tarps?

GG makes the Spinntwin, MLD makes the Grace Duo Spinntex EXP and Jay Ham did an entire series of MYOG articles using spinnaker for a pack, tarp and stuff sack.

How do we pack up our spinnaker tarps if folding them creates creases that leak. I can only imagine how many thousands of tiny creases would be created by stuffing a spinnaker tarp into a stuff sack.

I am currently waiting for some spinnaker that I plan to use for a new tarp. Please elaborate on how we can use spinnaker tarps successfully.

Party On ! 2010

Newton

[Lawson Kline]

I use to have a tent that would mist really bad so I pitched the tent on a really nice rain free day and mixed up some silicone & mineral spirits and sprayed it on with a paint sprayer.. It only added a little bit of weight but it never misted again..

I personally find that polyester spinnaker is far more durable then nylon spinnaker because in order to make nylon spinnaker stiff and stretch free they have to apply a heavy urethane coat which weakens the tear strength.. Polyester on the other hand doesn't require as much urethane coating since it has alot less stretch then nylon. They usually only silcoat the spinnaker to keep it light and water free.

In my opinion spinnaker isn't a great outdoor gear material.

[Roger Caffin]

> Why does anyone use spinnaker for tarps?
Because it is lighter than silnylon.

I was referring to the versions of spinnaker **which are stiff**. Some of that comes from Dimension Polyant. Yes, I have bought some of it and tried it out.

It is not the only form of spinnaker fabric: some of the Contender stuff (eg Supalite and Dynakote) is flexible. Not all that waterproof unfortunately, and the Contender stuff is a trifle expensive.

Cheers

[Ron Bell / MLD]

Hi John,

There are hundreds of "spinnaker" fabrics out there.

In the 40 to 50 I sampled over a few years only one under 1oz sq/yd was good enough to use as a tarp/shelter material.

Yes, In the beginning I tried all the various ones off the kite sites too…nope

Bottom line- I never found one that was a woven (non Cuben) under about 1- 1.2oz that would work except the Spinntex .97 and newer EXP versions.

There are a lot of different coatings and weaves too.

With the Spinntex EXP you can fold or stuff it just fine and will see a nice long (years) service life.

As some have noted- the sailmaker yds are smaller and the listed wt's are usually before any coating is applied- really more like a item or model number than anything closely related to the weight of the finished product….

It woud be great if there was shelter suitable spinnaker than was .5oz, $3.85 p/y, etc- but I just have never seen it and can't imagine it could exist.

Note that back when (pre 2009) a few mfgrs did sell tarps from lighter spinnakers- but that ended real quick because they tore apart too easy and were only water resistant. -Just like the early days of Cuben too when some mfgrs use .33 or .45 etc and that pretty much stopped.

[Bob Gross]

Ron, I appreciate the opinions of a practical minded expert here. You can't afford to get screwed up chasing every fabric fad out there.

–B.G.–

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