Our Core Upwind Sailcloth Selection

At Direct-Sails, we specialise in high quality cruising and racing sails head sails and mainsails. We have curated a range of sailcloth to fit every budget and cover both your day sailing, coastal cruising, offshore sailing and racing needs. Find out more below about which sailcloth or category would suit you best.

Crosscut Woven Dacron

Crosscut woven dacron is a great tried and tested choice for day sailing, coastal cruising or long term offshore passages. We have a range of dacron cloths in both crosscut and radial styles.

IYU Dacron Manufactured in Taiwan with over 30 years of weaving experience the IYU cloth range is perfect for budget inshore cruising, lake boats and smaller yachts. The cloth is extensively tested and hold up well against European and American manufactured cloths of modulus and thread count.

Contender Supercruise Cruising sails must provide a level of durability and performance with this in mind Contender have developed the Supercruise product line. With enhanced stretch performance giving efficient sail shape over time which boosts boat speed,handling and makes a cruise more comfortable and enjoyable. The finishing of Contenders Supercruise cloth is optimised for ease of handling and the diagonal stability needed in more performance oriented sails. It is also treated with a UV inhibitor post weaving to ensure its longevity even in the harshest sunlight.

Contender Fibrecon Pro Fibercon Pro sailcloth is woven to a very high density with a very strong dacron fibre and engineered to match the specific loads of the various rigs. Fibrecon pro is woven with power-shrinkage technology. The yarns and fibers achieve their maximum shrinkage allowing the yarns to be woven together more times per yard than any other fabric yielding a super strong and high performance sailcloth. The finishing of the Fibercon Pro sailcloth with UV inhibitors also ensures a long lifespan. Every production process is carefully overseen so that you receive a consistent quality of sailcloth which is much stronger than normal woven dacron. This cloth is ideal for the higher sustained winds and demands of offshore sailing and longer passages and will enhance boat performance and handling.

Radial sail cloths

The radial nature of these sailcloths allows us to build highly efficient sail shapes and ensures that the sails will not stretch as much as crosscut cloths over time

Challenge Newport Proradial Newport Radial is made using Challenge's patented process of weaving ultra straight warp yarns into high mass fabrics. The fill yarns take the crimp during the weaving process and surround the warp yarns. At Direct-Sails we then cut the cloth and carefully align the strong warp yarns with the load direction of the sail resulting in a sail with excellent strength and performance.

Contender CDX Pro CDX Pro radial laminates are engineered for durability and cruising performance. Contender have designed the CDX Pro range to have the inner construction of a racing sail with the outer durability of a dacron cruising sail. The interior zig zag scims ensure an excellent sail shape and very low stretch while the durable taffeta outer skin allows for furling and stack pack storage without any delamination. Ti02 in the adhesive adds to UV resistance and a robust anti mildew additive provides advanced protection against mildew. The CDX Pro fabrics are more efficient in terms of strength to weight which will improve lower wind range performance and ease of handling.

Racing Lamiantes

Contender ZZP The ZZ Polyester (ZZP) styles incorporate the same formed scrim and insertion technology as more expensive carbon or aramid cloths to create a range of fabrics based on high tenacity polyester fibers. Polyester scrims have excellent resistance to flex and its UV durability is further enhanced by a carbon black coating on the formed scrim. Designed for radial applications, the ZZP laminates are a durable and economical option for many small boats and one design classes that restrict the use of higher modulus fibers such as caarbon or aramid. At the same time they present a technical appearance in keeping with the carbon and black aramid fabrics on larger race boats.

Contender ZZC ZZ-C carbon laminates are a cutting-edge range of film/film laminates that leverage the exceptional modulus and UV resistance of carbon fiber. These laminates are designed to provide superior strength, flexibility, UV durability, and overall performance through a unique Carbon-UPE construction. The grid of UPE cross-plies enhances the properties of the carbon fiber and the combination of both yarns ensures outstanding durability and strength making ZZ-C well-suited for various high performance applications. The use of a multi-pass lamination technique, which involves several light layers of adhesives between each ply in the laminate, not only enhances the bonding strength but also prevents carbon filament fraying, contributing to ZZ-C’s reliability and longevity. The ZZ cross-ply construction further fortifies these laminates, providing added tear strength and bias stability, making them ideal for a wide range of applications. Despite their exceptional strength and durability, ZZ-C carbon laminates offer a soft hand, making them easy to handle

Dimension Polyant Carbon Sport Lite Skin These laminates for racing yachts of all sizes continuously keep having a huge impact on the international sailing world. Its first-class features are achieved by superior fiber handling and advanced lamination technology using our patented insert process. Carbon Sport was the first laminated sailcloth line to capture the strength of high performance carbon. This line benefits from the use of high strength carbon warp sheet fiber, a super rugged Technora® base and Technora X-PLY®. As pioneering racing fabrics, they keep impressing with incredible resistance to flex, elongation and degradation from UV. If you are into no compromise high performance, these composite fabrics are made for you. The lites skin provides an increased abrasion resistance combined with a minimum of additional weight: This is the formula that guided us when developing our Lite Skin®. The result is a composite product addressing an overlapping concern for both racers and cruisers, looking for a rugged sailcloth skin with an increased durability. Lite Skin® comes as a sheet of random array composed of non-woven filaments. It has an eye-catching look, as our experts have further accented it with an opaque finish that virtually eliminates the traditional paneled sail appearance

In addition to this fantastic range of stocked sailcloth we also offer a special order service for more exotic cloths such as dyneema based Dimension Polyant Hydranet, Contender Prohybrid and Contender ZZ Ultra. So if you cant see what you are looking for on your quote let s know and we will make a custom proposal for you.