Contender Fibercon Warp Tech & Hybrid - The Ultimate Choice for Performance Radial Cut Sails
In our ongoing quest to provide the best quality Performance Cruising Sails, we only use the finest materials available worldwide.
Let us take a look at two specially woven fabrics made in Europe by Contender Sailcloth that are, in our opinion, top-of-the-line for high-quality, performance radial cut sails designed and manufactured by Rolly Tasker Sails.
Either Fibercon Pro Warp Tech or Fibercon Pro Hybrid will be the choice of material for demanding owners who wish to lift their sailing to a new level. These advanced cloths are woven in a refined technique with top-quality yarns that give them great shape-holding qualities. They are also more resistant and durable to meet the high demands of long-term offshore and ocean sailing.
In fact, many bluewater and ocean voyagers visit our global HQ in the busy cruising hub of Phuket, where we have experienced a noticeable increase in demand for the best or even “very best” quality in cruising sails.
So, it makes perfect sense that in the recent around the world “Ocean Globe Race”, that three prominent yachts used radial sails made from Warp Tech cloth: “Maiden,” “Pen Duick” and “Galiana”.
In addition, two more boats are preparing for the upcoming “Golden Globe Race” single-handed and nonstop around the world, with a new suit of sails made from these materials.
How they are Made
Basically, these cloths are woven in a special technical construction balancing fibre, denier, count and crimp to create a line of high-performance fabrics for upwind sails in radial design. They are very tightly woven and have a special binding of the high tenacity yarn that is also coated with a solvent-based PU. As mentioned before, this is the cloth of choice for performance radial-cut sails that are extremely durable and suffer no loss of shape over time even in harsh offshore conditions and frequent reefing. Being woven cloths, both these fabrics are easy to handle when reefing, folding or stowing away.
A woven cloth has the best resistance to impact damage and general wear and tear and will stand up best to the tough conditions encountered while ocean cruising. This is especially true for these specially designed, top-range fabrics.
Advantages in General and Sustainability
Both Fibercon Pro Warp Tech and Fibercon Pro Hybrid guarantee maximum cloth stability to assure perfect profiles and long-term shape-holding. The diagonal strength of the fabric is especially important for cruising, where sails are often reefed for longer periods of time. When the sail is deeply reefed the radial cut will be effectively reduced and the loads will be mainly on the strengthening points at the luff and leech of the sail. This will stress the cloth, but with these fabrics it will stand up to this easily and will also always resume its original shape when the reefs are shaken out. This is also valid for furling foresails and of great importance for in-mast furling sails which have to keep their shape without becoming baggy or developing creases which will seriously hinder the smooth working of the furling system.
These fabrics are made for the performance cruiser who does not want to sacrifice durability for performance. The production of this blue-water cruising sailcloth, however, is quite elaborate and cost intensive, but the product will be very durable and also sustainable – these sails can last for many years. The cloth itself is woven in Germany to the highest environmental standards of production.
In Detail: Fibercon Pro Warp Tech – Designed for Boats From 28 to 52 Feet
The Warp Tech finish is firm for maximum cloth stability. Compared to woven Dacron cloth, Warp Tech has excellent UV-resistance due to high tenacity yarns, of solid size for both warp and fill, that degrade much slower than thinner yarns. Finally, the fabric is finished in a coating in which the fibres are embedded and which also acts to filter UV rays.
In Detail: Fibercon Pro Hybrid – Designed for Boats of Up to 65 Feet
This is the ultimate, top-shelf cloth that combines extremely strong Dyneema yarns with Contender’s exclusive Fibercon polyester fibres to take advantage of the best of both. Impregnated and stabilised with a special coating, this cloth is extremely durable, with a high diagonal stability of the fabric. In other words: The best that money can buy.
Fibercon Pro Hybrid is carefully designed with performance cruising yachts and long-distance voyaging in mind. This material combines tremendous strength and durability in a woven fabric suited to today’s high-tech radial sails. Here, the already strong Polyester yarns of Warp Tech are replaced by Dyneema yarns that have four times the breaking loadwhile the coating is specially formulated for Dyneema.
Big boats will benefit from the Dyneema due to the much higher loads in large sail areas, making the sail virtually impossible to tear. Sails made from Fibercon Pro Hybrid are super-durable, high performance and great looking radial sails. They also show a superb resistance to UV and the growth of unsightly mildew, two of the most common problems in the tropics. And as this is a woven cloth, there also will be no problems with delamination, which often occurs with laminate or membrane sails in areas of high UV intensity.
Value for Money
This ultimate quality sailcloth naturally comes at a price that is much higher than that of other fabrics. With regards to best value for money, sails made from quality cruising Dacron cloth remain unbeatable. Our popular Cruising Laminate also offers high quality and increased performance at a reasonable cost.
However, for anyone demanding simply the best of the best and nothing less in terms of durability, Fibercon Pro Warp Tech and especially Fibercon Pro Hybrid woven fabric will be the material of choice.