Thinner, lighter and stronger sails

Dimension-Polyant’s new Tyra- PLY sailcloth had a successful first season and the material will now be developed further…

The recent advent of Tyra UD tapes by Dimension-Polyant promises a revolution for the process of making sails from rolls of sailcloth – rolled goods as they’re known in the trade. Sails made in this cost-effective way can now have all the same essential attributes as custom-built filament and tape-based membranes: being thinner, lighter and stronger than conventional sailmaking fabrics.

This has been achieved through the carefully engineered choice of combining high-modulus filament materials, customising their assembly into tapes that are arranged for optimal strength and minimal weight, the addition of any desired finish material like a taffeta for abrasion resistance, and all bound together with a thermoplastic adhesive. The result is a cloth that is thin, strong and specifically tailored for the application, but also tough as nails.

In its first year of use, the first generation Tyra PLY sails delivered as promised: they were lightweight, strong enough to retain their design shapes and durable enough for inshore and offshore racing. This conclusion comes after a careful technical review, extensive testing by the Dimension-Polyant team based in La Rochelle on the racewinning Mach 650 sportsboat Dimension-Polyant, plus feedback from many customers and sailors.

Dimension-Polyant is therefore continuing to invest in Tyra PLY to improve the technology further by both streamlining production and improving the product line to meet its growing demand. This year Tyra PLY will be taken to the next level of performance with the advent of a newly developed adhesive system (Thermoset) and further production line upgrades so that the next generation of Tyra PLY will have an even broader application range.

While retaining the essential qualities of strength, low stretch and durability of thermoplastic-bonded Tyra PLY, the use of Thermoset resins represent a significant leap forward in a feature too often forgotten in sailmaking: the pliability or “hand” of the sailcloth. Softer cloth is much easier to handle in crew work, which is especially important for shorthanded sailing, and by holding its strength and durability there is less risk of any failure of the fabric fibres when repeatedly folded and creased – the sort of thing that happens often in actual racing.

Moreover, even when rigged in a furling system, the new Tyra PLY Thermoset materials will be thinner and more pliable to reduce the diameter of deployed furled sails. This becomes important not only for reducing the added windage inherent to furled headsails but also for in-mast or in-boom furled mainsails and the limited space they have to operate safely and easily within an existing spar.

Dimension-Polyant’s decision to move forward with Thermoset adhesives was not easy and came only after careful testing and incorporation into a reliable and efficient method for Tyra PLY production. This is important to ensure consistency among production runs of the final products so that sailmakers can be assured of consistency and reliability in their products for their customers.

The testing was performed using standard techniques common for all sailcloth manufacturers where not only was the stress and strain of the new material measured, but also on material samples subjected to rigorous “flutter” tests where the material undertook repeated flapping to simulate a sail flogging in the wind and around common foredeck obstructions such as spars, shrouds, lifelines, stanchions, etc. The results are impressive: not only does Tyra PLY with Thermoset resin show impressive strength, but it has only a very small fractional loss of this strength after repeated abuse in the flapping tests.

‘The biggest challenge for us has been to devise and develop durable, process-oriented and applicationsafe adhesive systems,’ says Uwe Stein, CEO of Dimension-Polyant, ‘since there are not really standard off-the-shelf solutions. Thermoset adhesives are important for us because the crosslink between fibres and other substrates, including Ultra-PE which, in its very nature is difficult to bond, is a significant improvement with this impressive inter fibre bonding.’

On-the-water testing will be carried out with various projects planned in 2025. One such project is a tough one: the Globe 40 race around the world which starts in August 2025 in Lorient and finishes there in April 2026.

Lisa Berger, a long standing partner of Dimension-Polyant, has proven she is capable of this challenge, having already competed in the 2023 Mini Transat. With her race partner Jade Edwards-Leaney, Lisa will be sailing Class40 #93 in the Globe 40. For her this is planned as a stepping stone towards and even greater challenge in 2027: the non-stop Global Solo Challenge.

Besides pushing Lisa and Jade, the Globe 40 race of eight months sailing over 30,000 miles in six legs around all the Great Capes will also push their equipment and their sails – built from Tyra PLY Thermoset.

Click here for more information on Dimension-Polyant »