Laminate is a fancy word for a sailcloth made up of different layers of materials that are glued (or laminated ) together. UK-Halsey Tape-Drive laminates usually consist of three or four materials that each accomplish a separate function to enhance the of the laminate and thus the sail that's made out of it. these four materails are films, scrims, X-plys and taffetas.
FILM The most obvious material in a laminate sail is the film. The most commonly used film is DuPont's Mylar. Mylar is a polyester film that is very strong, highly resistant to stretch, and transparent. In the past, many sailmakers have made sails of nothing but Mylar and in some cases they have proven to be very fast. The only problem is durability. Mylar tears easily and is very susceptable to abrasion damage. In practice, sails made of only Mylar were short lived and often failed catastrophically.