The 3DL Difference

There are essential differences between a thermo-molded 3DL^® sail and any other sail made today. Though other sails attempt to look like 3DL, it remains unchallenged as the dominant racing sail technology worldwide. Here’s why...

© North Sails 1. More efficient structure. Only 3DL is manufactured as a unitary membrane on full-sized 3-dimensional molds, unlike all other sailmaking systems that assemble sails from flat pieces of material. 3DL structural yarns are laid on the mold in the precise 3-dimensional space they will occupy when flying, and run in continuous paths across the sail with no seams to distort or interfere with load transition.

RESULT: 3DL harnesses wind power more efficiently than any other sail.

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© North Sails 2. Unparalleled precision. No other sailmaking process approaches the accuracy of 3DL in replicating a designed shape. 3DL molds are scanned by lasers to verify shape within imperceptible tolerances. The laminate is then thermo-formed on the mold in a manner similar to a shrink-wrap process. The sail you get is the precise flying shape the sail designer created.

RESULT: Smoother and faster sail shapes built with guaranteed repeatability.

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© North Sails 3. Larger sweet spot. All sails have a “sweet spot;” a wind range where they perform at their optimum, and no sail delivers a bigger sweet spot than North 3DL. Only 3DL sails are thermo-molded in their optimum flying shape, so they assume this shape quickly in light winds. And because 3DL structural yarns are laid on the mold in the precise 3-dimensional space they will occupy when flying, they lock in the sail’s designed shape longer. This translates into a larger sweet spot (see illustration), which means optimum sail drive over a broader wind range and fewer costly sail changes.

RESULT: Speed that’s always turned on.