Editing Sail components (section)

===Materials===
{{See also|Sailcloth}}
The characteristics of a sail are due to design, construction and the attributes of the fibers, which are woven together to make the sail cloth. There are several key factors in evaluating a fiber for suitability in weaving a sail-cloth:<ref name=Textor/><ref name = Hancock>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Hancock
 | first1 = Brian
 | last2 = Knox-Johnson
 | first2 = Robin
 | title = Maximum Sail Power: The Complete Guide to Sails, Sail Technology, and Performance
 | publisher = Nomad Press
 | date = 2003
 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/maximumsailpower00hanc/page/288 288]
 | url = https://archive.org/details/maximumsailpower00hanc
 | url-access = registration
 | isbn = 9781619304277 }}</ref>
*''[[Elastic modulus|Initial modulus]]'' – The ability to resist stretching. Higher resistance is better for upwind sails.
*''[[Tensile strength|Breaking strength (tenacity)]]'' – Measured as a force per cross sectional area of fiber. Higher is better for sails.
*''[[Creep (deformation)|Creep]]'' – Describes the long term stretch of a fiber or fabric.  A material with creep may have a superior modulus, but lose its shape over time.
*''Resistance to [[Ultraviolet|ultraviolet light]]'' – Strength loss from exposure to the Sun’s UV rays measured by a standardized exposure test.
*''[[Fatigue (material)|Flex strength]]'' – Strength lost due to bending, folding, or flogging, which is frequently measured with an industry standard 50 fold test.
*''[[Cost-effectiveness analysis|Cost-effectiveness]]'' – Both the initial cost and its durability of the material define its cost-effectiveness over time.
Traditionally, sails were made from [[flax]] or [[cotton]] [[canvas]].<ref name = Hancock/> Materials used in sails, as of the 21st Century, include [[nylon]] for spinnakers—where light weight and elastic resistance to shock load are valued—and a range of fibers, used for triangular sails, that includes [[Dacron]], [[aramid]] fibers—including [[Kevlar]], and other [[liquid crystal polymer]] fibers—including [[Vectran]].<ref name = Hancock/><ref name=Textor/>

Woven materials, like Dacron,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dacron sails {{!}} Elvstrøm Sails since 1954 |url=https://elvstromsails.com/sail-technology/sail-materials/woven-sail-material-dacron/ |access-date=2024-09-16 |website=elvstromsails.com |language=en-US}}</ref> may be specified as either high or low ''tenacity'', as indicated, in part by their [[Units of textile measurement#Denier|denier]] count (a unit of measure for the [[linear mass density]] of fibers). High-tenacity Dacron comes in multiples of 220, 350 and 570 deniers, whereas low-tenacity Dacron comes in multiples of 150, 250, and 400 deniers. Sailcloth is typically heat-shrunk to tighten the weave and then receives a chemical bonding finish of [[melamine]]. Such cloth is typically specified by deniers for [[Warp (weaving)|warp]] and fill ([[weft]]), e.g. 220/570.<ref name = Rice>
{{Citation
 | last = Rice
 | first = Carol
 | title = A first-time buyers checklist
 | newspaper = Cruising World
 | pages = 34–35
 | volume = 21
 | issn = 0098-3519
 | date = January 1995
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cbA2Sw1wqGQC&pg=RA5-PA35
 | access-date = 2017-01-13 }}</ref>