Sailing superyachts show off some spectacularly colorful, and creatively detailed, sails. Typically the designs are hand painted. The giant octopus you see above, however, is a photo-quality print, done by Doyle Sails New Zealand. The company calls it Stratis Sail Art, and it’s now available to all customers.
Stratis is a type of sail created by Doyle Sails more than a decade ago. It’s a lighter, longer-lasting sail developed mostly for superyachts and racing yachts, due to the loads and other high demands they put on sails. Stratis employs Kevlar, carbon fiber, Vectran, and other materials. Stratis Sail Art sees the Stratis fabric printed with the image before the sails are laminated.
The first Stratis Sail Art sails are aboard the yacht Shadow, a 100-footer (30.5-meter) built in 2011. The owner requested an octopus, which is printed on each side of the two sails. Imagine how they appear as they’re raised and start filling with air: The creature surely jumps to life. Doyle Sails says the appearance up close is as detailed and clear as it is from on the horizon.
Beyond being creative, Stratis Sail Art adds “negligible weight to the end product,” according to Chris McMaster, Doyle Sails New Zealand’s managing director. By comparison, the company says that if the octopi on Shadow’s sails were hand-painted, the process would have added about 22 to 33 pounds (10 to 15 kilograms) to the sail. It’s due to the layers of paint required for the details. Furthermore, the company says Stratis Sail Art doesn’t compromise the fabric’s integrity. Unfortunately, paint can make the membranes brittle.
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