Shade Sails - anyone used one?

Currently doing up the garden and have just pulled down a rotting pergola that had the dual purpose of providing shade and giving privacy from next doors first floor balcony.

I don't particularly want to put a new pergola up and came across "Shade Sails" which are a triangular 'sail' that you put up horizontally using 3 posts or wall as the situation dictates. This would fit the bill nicely. Would also give protection when bbq'ing during the British summer - ahem.

They look quite good and will be easier to install but I'm not sure of the permanency of it. I know they would be better off put away for the winter but I'm wondering about the practicality of leaving it up over the summer. Would they drive me to distraction during windy weather with the flapping noises, would they end up ripping etc.

Anyone have any experience of them?

URL to give an idea of what I'm talking about

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Reply to
Kevin
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The message from "Kevin" contains these words:

Reply to
Guy King

Weird, I only use firefox - it works fine for me :) Perhaps the site was playing up.

Yup, high wind is a concern for me. I'm thinking perhaps of installing in such a way so I can erect and dismantle on demand. Pulleys perhaps?

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin

The message from "Kevin" contains these words:

All I get is a pale yellow page with logos on and a dark blue stripe down the middle.

Reply to
Guy King

Try going back to the site and holding shift (or is it Control)when you click the "refresh" button on the browser. Might have a duff page stuck in a cache somewhere..

Anyway, on viewing the sails (from Firefox :¬) ) It looks like they are pretty robust, and, I would guess, the idea of having a mix of high and low fixing points _may_ serve to reduce the amount of "parachuting" of the fabric.

On the downloadable D-I-Y instructions

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do urge on the side of caution when choosing mounting points because.... "In instances of poor weather and strong winds, the loads placed on the sail are enormous, and should not be underestimated."

I have seen similar things in the UK. One such beast is outside the local "VUE" cinema. It's a massive structure and has been there for quite a number of years now.

Pete

Reply to
PeTe33

The message from "Pet_@_www.gymratz.co.uk_;¬)" contains these words:

Nope, still a blank blue stripe. The source for it doesn't contain any text as such, just a load of font definitions.

Reply to
Guy King

Works for me under Firefox - check out their comments page :-p

Saying that, they`ll probably delete it asap, so here it is in full

----- Your website is horrendously unfriendly - no right clicking (I use mouse gestures under Firefox), warnings about copying if you happen to hover your mouse in the wrong place.

That's a sale lost anyway - as long as you're happy to piss potential customers off, potential customers will go elsewhere - like me.

-----

Not that I was going to buy anything off them anyway, but they might as well know it`ll scare people away :-)

Reply to
Colin Wilson

The message from Colin Wilson contains these words:

And anyway - it's so easy to copy things even when a site blocks right-clicking.

I'm still getting nothing from it though.

Reply to
Guy King

Working ok here. Do blueblunder use similar 'transparent' caches to NTL?

Reply to
<me9

I also found their site most ugly in operation. What with that stupid "navigation" tab chasing me around. And the "DO NOT COPY" on all the pictures was the biggest pile of pants. All I wanted to do was click a picture to see if it would go any bigger!

Bloody Aussies.

Reply to
PeTe33

The message from =?ISO-8859-15?Q?=22Pet_=40_www=2Egymratz=2Eco=2Euk_=3B=AC=29=22?= contains these words:

And yet the people who are responsible for the web editor that wrote it are very proud of it - says so all the way through the code.

Reply to
Guy King

The message from contains these words:

Dunno - I've checked this end and I was using a direct connection - I've also tried it through BY's proxy server and it's just the same.

Reply to
Guy King

I always leave MS I.E. on my PC just for such occasions.

Reply to
GymRatZ

I've been looking at a few different suppliers and the instructions all look suspiciously similar, implying a common supply or overt copying :)

Most have the 'consider the effect of high wind when selecting site' get out statement but I'm not sure if this is a arse covering exercise or a tangible risk.

The sail I'm looking at is 5m triangular and I would install it with an inbuilt slope, high to low.

Anyway, apologies for my poor selection of web site to give an example. There were plenty of others I just picked a bad 'un.

Cheers all

Reply to
Kevin

We have one in Italy on top of a hill in an area subject to katabatic winds. Provided that the sail is well made and well secured it shouldn't be a problem.

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7-9 of their "umbrellas" PDF catalogue gives examples.

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are now selling in the UK, my wife found a paper catalogue in her last copy of some house magazine or other.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Reply to
Steve Firth

Go to your local sailmakers/chandlers (helps to be by a dock/coast) and they'll run up virtually anything for you - and help out with the rigging. Bristol/Albion dockside is good for this. Probably way cheaper too.

Phil.

Reply to
Phil

The message from GymRatZ contains these words:

How would you take it off? MS have gone to great lengths to make it hard to remove.

Reply to
Guy King

You never know when you might need it. A lot of important sites aren't fully functional in Firefox, e.g. Inland Revenue.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

The message from Stuart Noble contains these words:

Indeed - that's how I was able to see the crapulent sailsite.

Reply to
Guy King

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