Adhesion and Opacity Varies Widely

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Ahesion was a key characteristics we sought in a sail paint, but we were also interested in opacity.

  1. After six months, Benjamin Moore paint was chipped widely and it peeled when the sail was bent.
  2. MDR/Amazons paint was still flexible after 6 months, and the coating was consistently adhered throughout.
  3. Against a strong backlight, white MDR/Amazons paint (lower half of image) was clearly more transparent than the gray.
  4. The Flexabar Life Ring paint did not cover well and was more transparent than the better paints.

Darrell Nicholson
Darrell Nicholson is editor emeritus of Practical Sailor. He is a longtime liveaboard sailor and has logged tens of thousands of miles in three oceans. A winner of dozens of writing awards in disparate genres, he currently edits Marine Electronics Journal for the National Marine Electronics Association. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard 100-ton Master license and sails his S&S-designed Yankee 30, Opal, out of St. Petersburg, Florida. He can be reached at darrellnicholson.com.

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