Great Post well worth following if you want to learn thanks to all peter l⛵⛵😊

Hi ChrisG - absolutely personal choice for material and colour. There are plenty of new built replicas of yachts 100+ years old - some of which clearly look wrong with the wrong colour sails, then you come all the way up to America's cup with black/graphite colours - but then there are probably few of us modellers able to make these pre-preg carbon fibre wings.⛵⛵⛵

Interesting with colours of yachts sails. I remember reading about the English designer of the Dragon force yachts. You have probably seen them with a dragon painted across the 2 sails. He managed to persuade the manufacturers to have plain white sails available and I gather they sold very well.

Roy

Hello luckyduck
Whilst I agree with you absolutely that pure white sails generally look better on modern and generally racing yachts, and cream or off white and natural fabrics tend to look better on older classic craft that is not always the case.
There are many yachts around the world costing many millions of pounds, euros and dollars that sport man fabric sails, they are white and bright, economical to replace and update and need far less maintenance.
Inga the yacht that is the subject of this question and answer blog is relatively new being built in 1967, which makes her younger than me and a mere child😂😂
This all makes for a very interesting blog, it ends up horses for courses and gets us all talking which is great.
Best regards ChrisG

The original yacht was built in 1967 in Germany, I believe she would look good in cotton sails or would probably have modern materials used in subsequent sail changes.
Regards ChrisG

The real yacht, I'm not sure when the real yacht was first built.

Ripstop nylon in my sail-bag

Alessandro will tell you, you have done a foolish thing, you got me started up on gaff sails on old boats

Does the boat qualify as OLD if it was built in 1921?
Both racing and fishing
White(?) sails

I know that I am a pain😋

Chris - all the materials are fine for sails, it depends how you want the sails to look. Manmade fibres look manmade and are great for modern and racing yachts. For older style models, cotton of various forms looks a lot better. The other thing is colour - pure white sails again look odd on older style boats - a pale buff colour often looks better, unless you are into old barge/fishing boat style sails requiring a deep red/rusty colour.

I seem to remember that Dacron and Terylene are the same material.
Roy

Hello Michael
I think this might start the purists chuntering a bit but here goes nothing!
I have two samples arrive today one is Dacron at 36" wide sold as material for sail making and is around the £20, as you would expect and is enough to make a suit of sails for Inga but only just.
The other from Ebay is sold as material for making kites and outdoor flags, is water resistant lightweight nylon Ripstop and is 150 cm wide. The total price for the 100 x 150 was £3.84 p.p. inc.
Now I am aware that when it comes to important things like hobbies us retired guys never begrudge spending our money but my gut feeling is to have a go with the cheaper of the two because it feels lighter and better.
I only intend to be sailing my boat as with the others occasionally so will keep away from the lake when stormy so heavy sails are not needed.
Decision made I will post my progress 😂😂 when there is any, I hope this does not complicate things.
Best of luck ChrisG.
p.s. My "Boss" likes Roys idea, always complaining I have too many shirts but dont fancy seeing my model being projected across the lake by some of my shirts.