Bull Sails. Sailmakers

Back in the seventies it wasn't just all about  bushy hair and bad fashion. Actually it was! But in the sailmaking world, it was the realm of the mitre cut. When I began sailmaking in the late 70's at Brooke Sails, under the tutelage of Noel Brooke, every headsail we made was a mitre cut sail. The reason was pretty simple, the Dacron sailcloth we used was pretty crappy compared to todays woven cloths and Carbon was something that was left over on the grill after a BBQ! Sail Design was a lot harder back then as the Sail-maker had to think of not only shape but cloth stretch as well. The cloth was very spongy and stretched a lot, particularly in the warp direction along the roll and even more so on the bias. It was marginally more stable on the Fill or Weft direction. I can remember the late Ben Lexcen (or Bob Miller as he was then) telling me that they had to cut their 12 metre class mains 9" (230mm) short on the leech to allow for stretch as the mainsail was sheeted on.

As I was finishing our most recent batch of cadet sails I began to muse on how we as sailmakers and myself personally have been involved in the Cadet class for many years as a sailmaker and more recently as a coach. Our cadet sails began over 25 years ago in a small tin shed on the waterfront, the sails were hand cut on a bench and assembled, one of our very early sets went on to win the Australian Championship that year. Our sails now are designed on the latest Smar Azure software ( the same software that was used in the design of the wing sail for Oracle in the Americas Cup) and computer cut for assembly by us. These sails have been constantly evolving and had much success at World, National, State and Regional level. After a break from the hands on role with the cadets whilst I did some big boat sailing. I decided to help out with the coaching at Royal Geelong Yacht Club ( mainly to avoid getting press ganged to one the various committees, it must be said).  This has led to some