I've just bought brand new North Sail E_Type 6.6 and it came along with 430 Silver series SDM mast and Silver series boom. Problem is that sails persists to have wrinkles in lower part no matter how it is rigged (see images). Having battens (3 lowest ones) really tight removes some of the wrinkles but not all.

To make things more complicated, this is already second sail. I returned first one exactly for the same reason and manufacturer sent new one admitting that sail was incorrectly sewn and/or cut in the factory. It was great surprise to find out this second one to have the same problem, slightly less severe as the first one, however.

I got response today from manufacturer saying that amount of wrinkles is within tolerance and they won't affect performance of the sail. Dealer is very co-operative and says that I can return the sail in case I feel so. As this is my first sail I'm not sure what do.

1) Is this normal "feature" of brand new sail that should be just accepted?
2) Will these kind of wrinkles affect the performance of the sail?

Thank you for any opions on the subject.

Those wrinkles wouldn't bother me

Those few slight wrinkles won't affect anything but the look.

Firstly, good choice of sail.

When I first rigged mine I tightened the battens a lot. The sail will almost backwind as you put on the downhaul. After the first sail on it, it won't do this anymore.

Also, I found the E-type works best if you can constantly adjust the outhaul.
Fun, quick and light sail.

Have you got a full photo of the sail there?

Good sails are designed to work on the water not on the beach. We don't sail on the beach. The sailmaker has to take into account the mast bending sideways when powered up, sea way etc. Here are some pictures of my 7.7. The wrinkles in the luff sleeve and the vertical wrinkles on the top three panels are gone when sailing. There is no point in having a pretty sail on the beach when it doesn't work on the water.

Those wrinkles look to be from not enough batton tension. If you tighten them up, most of all those wrinkles should disappear.

A quick run over with a hot iron will do the trick.

New sails stretch with rigging, sailing and tensioning.
You will probably find most of those wrinkles will come out after the sail has been used a few times.
Don't overdo the batten tension until you have used it a bit.

Select to expand quote

Magic Ride said..
Those wrinkles look to be from not enough batton tension. If you tighten them up, most of all those wrinkles should disappear.

He already said he has tried a lot of tension.

They are insignificant, and trying to make them go away will likely stuff something up.

I reckon it is about the least wrinkly sail I've ever seen!!

Mark, I think Magic Ride was just trying to be helpful.

My wife has a few wrinkles when she's on the beach which seem to smooth out when she's on the water.

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..

He already said he has tried a lot of tension.

The first pic appears to show not enough tension

Select to expand quote

Mark _australia said..
I reckon it is about the least wrinkly sail I've ever seen!!

Until now...
...Oil of Ulan hehe.

Select to expand quote

Sparky said..
My wife has a few wrinkles when she's on the beach which seem to smooth out when she's on the water.

What, with more downhaul?

I suppose my wife isn't brand new.

I think it could have something to do with your sail batten tension.easy fix.nice sail.

I don't care about the looks as long as it works And based on your input it shouldn't be a problem.

I've tried with different downhaul, outhaul and batten settings. The pictures were from taken from the setup with least wrinkles. Lowest 3 battens were as tight I could get them with provided tool. Based on your recommendations I will now loose them a bit before sailing.

Let's see if there is any differerence after sailing few times. If not, I'll try the ironing then

Your sail is actually totally fine. It's probably just the camera angle and the glare in the room.

Select to expand quote

Sparky said..
My wife has a few wrinkles when she's on the beach which seem to smooth out when she's on the water.

...and in the Jacuzzi by the way.

Bloody hell , whatever you do , DONT IRON !!!
Also don't max out using the tool , back it off a little, run the thing in first

Iron it, iron it, iron it.

Mostly my confusion came from the warranty return of the first (identical) sail. It had about the same amount of wrinkles and it was deemed to be faulty (by the manufacturer after they rigged it in the factory) and this second one not.

Well, I'm OK now with your opinions supporting. And no worries, I promise to keep my iron away from the sail

Select to expand quote

Parked said..

Sparky said..
My wife has a few wrinkles when she's on the beach which seem to smooth out when she's on the water.

What, with more downhaul?

No, Iron it.I mean sail, not the wife.Wife you could downhole more.

I think the wrinkles in the green panel at the tack are far from ideal. That area should be the smoothest part of any sail. Something not right there but it is nothing that would make any noticeable difference to the performance.

Select to expand quote

kalak said..
Mostly my confusion came from the warranty return of the first (identical) sail. It had about the same amount of wrinkles and it was deemed to be faulty (by the manufacturer after they rigged it in the factory) and this second one not.

Well, I'm OK now with your opinions supporting. And no worries, I promise to keep my iron away from the sail

Many times it's much easier to just replace the sail if it hasn't been used by the buyer, than to try to convince them that there is nothing wrong with it. Chances are that they will just sell that first sail to somebody else who will find nothing wrong with it.

Select to expand quote

Brien said..
I think the wrinkles in the green panel at the tack are far from ideal. That area should be the smoothest part of any sail. Something not right there but it is nothing that would make any noticeable difference to the performance.

That doesn't match my experience. Indeed if you look at most brands, the bottom half of the sail usually has creases... eg:
- in cammed sails, it is usually around the wide-luff stitching... it needs to be loose enough for the cams to rotate.
- in wave sails, it is often at the boom cut-out -> since there is no tension due to the cut-out and lots of tension due to downhaul, the first seem between the mast-pocket and the panel is often ... wavy.

It appears to be that the hardest part of the sail to get right, will be the bit with the highest tension, because it will have load-lines running through it to some other connection point -> that means it will be the bottom half of the sail. And with the top half being mostly loose-leach, you probably wont even see it in those seams.

Select to expand quote

Sparky said..
Iron it, iron it, iron it.

Bad pussy

Ive heard if you put the whole sail in the oven you can shrink an old forma sail into a wave sail . The same way we used to shrink empty potato chip packets .

Select to expand quote

Sparky said..
My wife has a few wrinkles when she's on the beach which seem to smooth out when she's on the water.

I know someone who takes their bra off just to take the wrinkles out of her face

My wife uses a large peg between her shoulder blades.