Bull Sails. Sailmakers

 A tale of two sails! it was the most traditional of times and yet the most modern? Apologies to Charles Dickens for bastardising one of literature’s most iconic opening lines. But looking through my order list I was struck at the varied nature of the sails we had on order! We are currently building sails for everything from the smallest pram dinghy, trailer sailers, traditional cruising yachts, Sydney 32 and 38’s right up to canting keel Cookson 50’s. Each sail has its own nuances and requirements. Let’s compare two sails- A full on racing Laminate designed sheerly for speed but with some concessions for longevity for club/ regatta racing on a Sydney 32. The other a Dacron Sail being built for “Westwind”,  a beautiful classic yacht, indeed the first yacht ever built by the legendary Jock Muir in Tasmania. Zeptyr Membrane Firstly, let’s look at a modern Membrane sail, in this case a sail we are making for a Sydney 32, featuring Zeptyr Sails technology, made in Sydney ...

  Trickle down or trickle up technology? Trickle down technology is a bit of a catch phrase often used these days for examples of improved technology at high levels that finds its way into common or everyday usage. Cars are a great example of this and how often do we take for granted things like Velcro which was originally developed for weightless space travel fastening. Similarly with sail development, we have scenarios where leading-edge technology has worked its way down into club racing and cruising scenarios. Recently we have seen a big increase in short handed sailing with a lot of clubs having a double handed division and watching some recent footage of the start of the Melbourne-Osaka Yacht race, I saw a lot of developments on these and other craft that have trickled up from the cruising division. Short handed sailing is exactly that, fewer people sailing the boat! Systems must be adapted to enable size and trim adjusting to take place at a more refined and effortl...