Bull Sails. Sailmakers

Now out. Get aboard.

Sailing by feel It is quite a fascinating thing to sit and watch a fleet of yachts sailing upwind in a heavy wind; so much can be learnt from observing the different styles and techniques from a bird’s eye perspective. It is amazing how much variation there is between the good ones in the lead doing it easy and the ones having all sorts of trouble at the back. The leaders always look so much settled and in control, whilst at the back of the fleet there are roundups and flapping sails and it looks like they are sailing in twice the breeze. Two things are always obvious to the naked eye; the leaders nearly always have less angle of heel and as well seem to have their sails a lot more stable and flapping or ragging a lot less. Teamwork This ability to handle these conditions is a result of teawork between all the crew, in particular the trimmers and the helmsman. In these most testing of circumstances it is the ability of both parties to have an inate “feel” for the boat and its pe

That Damn Barger There is a certain sound that makes yachties wince, the crunch of two boats meeting. Unfortunately it is not that uncommon, despite the yachting rules being relatively simple and orientated toward keeping boats apart. There will always be the collisions caused by poor decision making or loss of control. It is unavoidable when you have a lot of boats in a congested area. But a strong working knowledge of the rules is absolutely mandatory for all sailors and would go a long way toward making the racecourse a much safer place. A lot of sailors regard the rules of sailing as a bit of a minefield. But when you break them down into simple areas and likely scenarios then it does become relatively straight forward. Let’s start by looking at probably the most flagrant violation of the rules. Barging in at the boat end of the starting line! In every yacht club in the world there is a serial barger who incurs the wrath of the competitors. The person who comes sweeping in ar

Who says you need to go to a "Franchised big name" sailmaker for fast racing sails. Our new carbon membrane MXL and downwind sails on Cinquante were right on the pace in the recent Sydney 38 State titles. First home in 2 races and consistently fast in all conditions. Unfortunately a DSQ and some boat handling took its toll on the overall results, which was disappointing from a participants point of view but we had lots of good comments about the new sails.