Steve Goacher, of Windermere, had supplied me with sails for my Merlin Rocket dinghy which I sail near Manchester, so having bought a Hanse 341, I purchased my cruising chute and snuffer from him. We had good discussions with him and whilst I decided to go for a sail towards the lower end of his recommendations, I would probably go for a larger sail now. A good sail and the snuffer works well
3 years ago, I bought a self tacker from him and again we had useful discussions on its shape and size, as it had to clear a radar reflector, and it was supplied with vertical battens. It has been a good sail and the only problem has been that we have lost a vertical batten. The batten pocket must have been just a bit to wide and the batten had managed to work its way around the velcro tape. I have just put a larger end cap on the other battens and they are okay.
Though I knew they would be more expensive than Goacher, I decided to go with Saturn Sails of Largs for my mainsail, as my boat is based there. This was not a total success. They said that size of main should have 5 full length battens in it, rather than 4 as the original, and then supplied and charged me for a main with 4 battens in it! I reckon that I ordered it in November for an end of March delivery and when I rang up in April saying that I was coming up in a weeks time, they suddenly realised they had not started it and rushed it. Having said all that, it is a very well made sail, looks good and I reckon I can carry a full main for a couple of more knots extra.
Therefore, happy to recommend Steve Goacher as his sails look good and are well made..
Details questions. I would go with 3 reefs, as the common viewpoint seems to be to go down to third reef, before you even start to think about furling the jib. This is how I rig up my third reef, so I can reef from the cockpit.
http://www.myhanse.com/main-sheet_topic10522.html
Cloth selection I think the jib is Challenge Marblehead. I am not certain for the main. I think it is a Bainbridge cloth and it is the slightly lighter version with reinforcing threads, so it looks like it is rip stop nylon.
I have stuck with fully battened mains, as I think it gives a good shape and means the main drops easily in to its stackpack. The original main had Rutgerson roller cars on it, whilst I was a bit disappointed that the new Saturn main only has the standard slug based luff cars. I though I was buying a premium product. On a 301, you will probably be able to get away with either. I think most mains now are loose footed and I made sure both the head ans clew were secured to slugs with tape, as the original main had just used plastic slides at its head and they had failed on a windy gybe.
------------- Martin&Rene Hanse 341 Dipper Wheel steering, 3 cabin layout, normally based in Scotland
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