Taking steps toward a sustainable future

While wind provides clean energy to power sailboats, the sails aren’t all that green. The marine industry is looking for ways to minimize its impact, with North Sails’ Commercial Director Tom Davis responding to some Scuttlebutt questions about their new RENEW sails:

What is the impact on the environment for the sailcloth RENEW is replacing, and how is RENEW an improvement?
The substitution of more sustainable raw materials in our RENEW sailcloth styles is a step toward improving the environmental impact of our sport. If you could avoid compromise in sailing performance, with a very minor cost difference, in a sail that will last a long time, while supporting the effort to use more environmentally friendly materials, wouldn’t you?

The polyester films, yarns, and woven polyester taffetas in RENEW sailcloth were once discarded plastic beverage bottles. In the high modulus RENEW styles, the bio-based Dyneema yarn started as pulp from trees – with reforested trees consuming CO2 as they grow enough to become another batch of Dyneema in the future!

A truly sustainable future will happen as a result of many, many steps like this, taken in all sorts of ways. RENEW is one way North Sails adds to the effort.

Does RENEW have any better or worse virtues at end of use?
At the end of a RENEW sail’s useful life as a sail – and we’re confident this will be a very long lifespan; which in itself is a “sustainable” approach when you make things, right? – it can be repurposed/upcycled like all our sails, through our formal programs with Sea Bags in the US, and 727 Sailbags in Europe.

RENEW is now available for mainsails, headsails and genoas on cruising boats ranging from 25 to 45 feet. Why?
We wanted to start with sails that our cruising client’s (rightfully) expect to last a long time, even when used in harsh environments, and without requiring “special” handling. The raw materials we have sourced and qualified, to date, are well suited to cruising sails for this LOA size range. Don’t worry though, this is just the start.

In due course, RENEW will extend into racing, and be available for a broader range of boat
sizes and sail types. For now, we’re excited to see the excellent results at sea of the sails we’ve delivered in North America and Europe. And we’re already at work, taking what we’re learning, and preparing to expand what RENEW means.

Tell us about cost, sail design, and construction.
The sail cost is a little bit higher – to cover the higher costs we incur when sourcing more-sustainable raw materials that are not performance-compromised. As for sail design and construction, there is no change. The specifications and measured performance of these materials allow us to design and build the appropriate sail types just the same as our non-RENEW materials.