I've got one in my stash. (I got it for $20, when the store got sick of letting it take up shelf space.) The sails were vac-formed plastic. I say "were" because I threw them out before I left the store. I just can't live with plastic sails.
The sails may indeed have been shaped as though the wind was hitting them from opposite sides. That's not incorrect - if the ship is sailing before the wind. In that case, a two-masted lateen-rigged vessel probably will sail "wing on wing," with the fore and main lateen yards swung so their peaks are on opposite sides of the ship. That was the most efficient way to expose the most canvas to the wind, and keep the ship from heeling over.
The box art is wrong, though, in showing the ship sailing wing-on-wing with the wind from abeam. At least I think that's what the artist was trying to show. He, like so many other people on the Heller payroll, obviously didn't really understand how ships work.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.