Doyle Universal Power Sail

Moderator: GreenLake

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby Alan » Thu Jan 24, 2013 9:29 pm

GreenLake said, on the Two block thread, "When singlehanding, you might tie the ends of the jibsheets together, that way, there's never just one end that's out of reach from the windward side."

Know what? That's downright brilliant. It suddenly makes it a whole lot easier to figure out what to do about the sheet setup for the UPS.

The sail arrived today. It has red tape on the leech, kind of by surprise, since I specified light and dark blue for the sail colors. Oh well, it'll make it easier to instruct inexperienced crew members. "The red edge goes at the back."

There was one moment of alarm: Handwritten on the outside of the box was "Doyle UPS spinnaker 12X12X24". Um, if those are the dimensions it'll never fit. Turned out 12X12X24 was the dimension of the shipping box in inches. :roll:
Alan
 
Posts: 756
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:39 pm

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby talbot » Fri Jan 25, 2013 9:47 pm

What's the final cost of the project?
--Talbot
talbot
 
Posts: 785
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:37 pm
Location: Eugene, Oregon

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby Alan » Sat Jan 26, 2013 2:07 am

The sail was $358, with shipping from Florida to California $379.34.
The furler was about $270, maybe $285 with shipping.
The bowsprit bits were about $150.
I haven't yet bought ratchet blocks or turning blocks or sheet line, or a halyard or a halyard block. I'd guess I'll end up at around $1000. Good thing I don't have a big boat. :)
Alan
 
Posts: 756
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:39 pm

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby GreenLake » Sat Jan 26, 2013 2:09 pm

I kept track of all boat and trailer related expenses (except distantly related items, like nautical books or car expenses in towing) and averaged over the long term I've managed to come in under $1000.00 per year. Per hour of sailing that's in the ballpark of, say, movie tickets for me and the crew. That's what I call an affordable hobby :)
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
GreenLake
 
Posts: 7135
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:54 am

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby TIM WEBB » Sat Jan 26, 2013 11:36 pm

You got dat right GL!

I have a binder with every invoice for everything I've bought for the boat since '05. Adding it all up, it's still way less than the 20 bucks I was spending for each 60 seconds of fun per jump when I was an active skydiver (5500 jumps in 30+ years) :lol:
Tim Webb
1979 DS2 10099 The Red Witch
(I used to be Her "staff", in the way dogs have owners and cats have staff, but alas no longer ... <pout>)
TIM WEBB
 
Posts: 1208
Joined: Wed May 18, 2005 10:28 pm
Location: RIVERSIDE, CA

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby K.C. Walker » Mon Jan 28, 2013 3:25 pm

I'm afraid that I'm not as conscientious as you guys about keeping tabs on costs. I want to think that I spend less than $1000 per year… So that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Regardless, there really is no better bargain in boating, with the possible exception of Sunfish sailing.
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
K.C. Walker
 
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:50 pm
Location: North Stonington, Connecticut

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby Alan » Mon Jan 28, 2013 3:45 pm

I've got a pile of invoices, but they're all filed in the special accounting category "Getting boat seaworthy - doesn't count."
Alan
 
Posts: 756
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:39 pm

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby Alan » Sat Mar 02, 2013 10:43 pm

Yesterday I managed to do a really clunky jury-rig of the UPS with the boat on the trailer. It fits, with a 16-foot luff. It's pretty as all get-out when unfurled, and it fills at the slightest hint of a breeze. The clew is directly above the original-equipment jib cleats.

The Ronstan endless-line furler is the cat's pajamas. Even with the luff lines on the loose side, it took only about 2-1/2 effortless pulls to furl the sail.

K.C., I get what you mean now about the furler kicking its line out of the groove when unfurling. I had imagined it would eject the line from the furler housing, and the furler line would move as the sail unfurled. It actually separates the line from the pulley (the loop of line around the pulley expands a little bit, so it's no longer in tight contact with the pulley groove), so the line doesn't move as the sheet is being tugged on to unfurl the sail. Once less thing to tangle and trip on.
Alan
 
Posts: 756
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:39 pm

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby talbot » Sun Mar 03, 2013 11:56 am

Any advice on communicating with Doyle? I asked on their web site about the UPS, and mentioned the interest at Daysailer.org. They wrote back and asked what loft the DS crowd was using. I told them about St. Petersburg, and even mentioned the name of the person. Then nothing. All this by email. Is it better to call? If so, anyone have a recommended number?

--Talbot
talbot
 
Posts: 785
Joined: Mon Sep 03, 2007 3:37 pm
Location: Eugene, Oregon

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby Alan » Sun Mar 03, 2013 12:43 pm

Talbot,

Here's an email address for Paul Beaudin, who was my contact at Doyle:

paulbeaudin@doyleplochsails.com

He was good about offering advice. I think he's in New York. The sail was shipped from Florida
Alan
 
Posts: 756
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:39 pm

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby K.C. Walker » Sun Mar 03, 2013 12:45 pm

Alan,

Exciting, isn't it! You are going to have so much fun without sail.
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
K.C. Walker
 
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:50 pm
Location: North Stonington, Connecticut

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby K.C. Walker » Sun Mar 03, 2013 1:04 pm

My contact was at the Florida loft of the same company. I started out with phone calls and got shuffled around. I first called my local Rhode Island Doyle loft and they said that they would be happy to make the sail, but because a different loft had already made a Daysailer sail it would be better if I contacted them. Though, I learned a fair amount from talking to the Rhode Island loft. It turns out that the St. Petersburg loft did have records of the earlier UPS sails and the prices were the same. However, I chose a different size so it was really a sail from scratch and any of the lofts would have been fine, I suspect.

My contact was Josh Wilus josh@doyleplochsails.com . He was very helpful walking me through it and didn't treat me like the clueless one that I was. He's a busy guy so it wasn't always easy to get a hold of him. He spends a lot of time traveling to measure boats and also going to racing events. I found his email responses were slower than calling him.

I would say call for sure. You will find talking to people more helpful than email. At least I did. If you get somebody on the phone that you don't feel quite right about, which I did when I called the Marblehead loft, just say you want to think about it and move on. Call back again, because they do have helpful people that will make the experience pleasurable. Actually, I found the combination of calling and email worked out well.
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
K.C. Walker
 
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:50 pm
Location: North Stonington, Connecticut

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby seandwyer » Sun Mar 03, 2013 4:46 pm

See, this is all sort of confusing to me. I looked into buying one of these back in August and contacted Doyle then. I say contacted as in, I filled out a request for a price quote on the Doyle site. I got an email back from Jon Duer (he's in Doyle's Cleveland / Sandusky loft) and he said that what I really should get was something called an APS, and according to him it would work much better for a DS than a UPS. I looked through their site and didn't see anything called a UPS so I sort of trusted what he had to say(I have since found information on their site for both sails, so i may have just missed it the first time). He gave me a price of 475.00 and feeling like that was out of my price range, I stopped pursuing the idea. This is the link he sent me about the sail he was suggesting:
http://www.doylesails.com/cruising/down ... index.html
I suppose this must be different or the pricing wouldn't be so different. Reading through all the positive experiences you guys have had has me wondering why he was trying to lead me in a different, more expensive direction. I guess what I really need to do is intentionally contact a different loft, or as KC mentioned, keep calling until I get someone that is willing to work with me and gives me a good feeling.

What are the dimensions of the UPS when cut for the DS?
Sean
DS1 - 3203
seandwyer
 
Posts: 362
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:24 pm
Location: Ohio

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby K.C. Walker » Sun Mar 03, 2013 10:03 pm

The UPS is an up wind sail. The APC is a downwind sail. When I was talking with Josh at Doyle about what I wanted, which was the UPS, he said after a couple of seasons with the UPS I might want to fill in my sail inventory with an APC. I'm sure the APC would be better downwind but so far I'm having a blast with the UPS on all points of sail.

Because the UPS is not part of the Daysailer one design there is no set size. It's a custom sail. I paid $450 for mine and it's approximately 120 ft.².
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
K.C. Walker
 
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:50 pm
Location: North Stonington, Connecticut

Re: Doyle Universal Power Sail

Postby ChrisB » Mon Mar 04, 2013 9:02 am

Sean,

I paid $335 for mine (in 2010) but it is much smaller than K.C.'s. Mine is about 71 sq ft. I purchased mine intending to use it like a light air genoa in place of the jib so I wanted mine cut to fit between the stemhead fitting and the jib halyard. You can see a picture of mine on a beam reach in my personal gallery photos.

How big you go with the sail depends on a lot of factors; available crew (aka movable ballast), wind speeds in which you plan to use the sail, how much additional rigging you want to add to the boat,etc. Most of the guys who have purchased the sail have added a bow sprit of some kind to move the tack of the UPS forward of the bow.

The UPS is a useful sail from a close reach (in ligher air) to a dead run (flying it wing and wing on whisker pole). Because it is such light sailcloth (0.75 oz nylon) it will catch the lightest of breezes. On one of the rare occasions I had a crew with me, we flew mine on a beam reach in about 15 knots of wind. The boat stayed on a plane the entire time. Quite a ride!
Chris B.
ChrisB
 
Posts: 345
Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 8:42 am
Location: Melbourne, Florida

PreviousNext

Return to Sails

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests

cron