How old are my sails

I am trying to figure out what year my sail is. The sail came with my 84 hobie 18. It is all white, which from the sail history chart means its a 1970 or earlier.

I know this sail is not 40 years old, it is still crisp, I know this sail was bought from hobie later on, but when?

Is there any way to tell what year my all white sail is from?

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ALLEY CAT 1984 RED LINE HOBIE 18 MAGNUM
Sail # 10505 or 277

White sails have been made every year that Hobies have been made. The sail color chart just documents the first year that the sail pattern was made.

Sail numbers are only a rough approximation of age.

Hobie 18s were introduced in 1977, so #277 would be from that first year of production.

#10505 would be from mid/late-'80s, since numbers were already up over 15000 by the early 90's.

Another way to tell is the sailmaker's patch at the tack. There have been several varieties, but again it would only place the sail within a time frame, not an exact date. If you're lucky, the sailmaker's patch will have the exact manufacturing date written in pencil on it.

SO my second set of sails the #277 are from 1977. I think thats kinda cool to sport the original sails. They need new grommets.

Thanks so much for the response.

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ALLEY CAT 1984 RED LINE HOBIE 18 MAGNUM
Sail # 10505 or 277

While on this subject, how do you tell when a main or jib is blow out? Exactly how much of a difference do new sails make?

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2010 AHPC C2 #218

On the 18, the jib will flutter in a moderate to strong wind. You can also visibly see that it's gotten baggier when compared to a new jib and the draft starts to move back. On the mainsail, the luff will stretch and the tack will get lower and lower (i.e., less downhaul range).

Having new sails is really only important if you're racing. My 20 year old beach boat sails still work just fine for blasting around. As long as the fittings are still in good shape and the sails aren't worn to the point of tearing or being close to tearing, they're probably fine (the dacron fabric will lose its crispness).

For racing, it depends on how competetive you are and how often you race, but about 4 years would be the max for a jib, maybe a little more for the main. If you race a lot, it could be half that.

sm