Victoria Shadow Association Members' Forum

Alison_Pilkington

Resigned

Registered: 2016-03-22

Posts: 16

Victoria 30 sail colours.

We have newly acquired 'Jenny Wren', a lovely example with original sails which are at the end of their useful life and in need of replacement.

Our quandry is that her sails are red/tan colour which seems unusual. A quick internet search indicates that Victoria sails are most often white with a broad colour border.

Do the red sails carry any significance or was it just the quirk of the person who commissioned her? We want to keep her as true to her type as possible visually and so can't decide to stick with red or change to white with green border to match her hull band. Our only other consideration being that we want the new sails to be light and functional and red sail cloth could be a slightly heavier fabric it seems.

Does anyone have any information about traditional Victoria 30 sails to help us decide?

Alastair_Fleming

Member

Registered: 2007-06-12

Posts: 29

Re: Victoria 30 sail colours.

Hi Alison,

This isn't a direct answer to your question, but it may help you. I have a Victoria 34, Kaya, which has tan sails. She was originally supplied with white sails but was then sold to someone in Holland in 1993 where tan sails are much more common than in the UK. Kaya has an off white / cream coloured hull and topside and, in my opinion, the tan sails work better with this than the white. Also you get far less glare off tan sails making them easier on the eyes on rare days when it is sunny.

I have just replaced my mainsail with a new tan one - this has been made up in light tan Contender 8.38 oz AP Polyreg cloth. This sailcloth is available in weights as low as 5.38oz so I don't think there is any issue over sailcloth weight for tan coloured cloth. If you do go down the tan route you'll find the choice is far more limited (not all sailcloth supplier do it and the range they supply is more limited). I had a choice of Contender, Bainbridge and Dimension Polyant. A search online will give you their websites which have lots of information.

I don't know what the original Victoria 30 spec was, but suspect that it was the original purchaser's choice as to what colour they went with.

Hope this helps

Alastair

Alison_Pilkington

Resigned

Registered: 2016-03-22

Posts: 16

Re: Victoria 30 sail colours.

Wow,thank you. That' s very helpful. We have a sailmaker booked to visit in a week or so and I think we're decided to stick with the tan if possible. So long as there's not a significant difference in weight as we're not getting any younger for hoisting great lumps of cloth.

Brenda_Mallett

Member

Registered: 2015-08-24

Posts: 4

Re: Victoria 30 sail colours.

Tan sails are seen more easily in fog