Independant Sail makers

Thanks for all your help, I'm a bit busy with my proper 'supposed to only be a retirement project' business but has taken off, as they tend to do this time of year and I'm struggling with the concept of running a business for the first time in my life with no staff, so having to do bloody everything and it's harder work than I'm used to, so this scheme is a bit further back on the burner for the moment along with my book dinghy sailing made easy..

OK, so it's not about wanting sails per se, I'm working on a project which requires the sort of distribution I'm used to. Let's say for arguments sake, I've stumbled across the wonder of the age, a must have thing we would all want, but we'd need some technical explanation and assistance in assembling it say for arguments sake.

So it needs a technical distribution network, which frankly doesn't exist in the dinghy market presently which is why there are only a few major suppliers, and a mass of messers and cottage industries.

A network of sailmakers all with commercial premises and probably business savvy, would fit that bill.

Now us as customers on the other hand, would we be more likely to trust an expert in the field than something we're a bit unsure about, think it might do what we want, but would like to touchy feely before clicking that put in basket button?

It might work, providing of course the wonder product is what everyone wants and or might expand the markets of the distribution network and make them some cash as well..

Just a feasibility study at this stage.

most independent sailmakers (or franchise holders e,g. Ullmans or the North lofts)  will take on commissions and offer repairs etc.

Edited by turnturtle - 12 Feb 16 at 3:13pm

Originally posted by iGRF I'd like to find a list of all the small Independant sail lofts there are in the UK, not sure if there is a resource where that might be found, if so happy to research that. But in the meanwhile, those I can call to mind immediately My local Gibson Sails who specialise in Miracles and more recently have been dabbling with GP's Morgan Sails I'm aware of Rooster must have a loft or do they sub out?. Did Speedsails continue? I notice an ad for Lennon sails that has popped up recently. I'm looking for lofts capable of also doing the whole fit out, supply masts as well, got a project cooking which may or may not see the light of day, so any help with names of lofts and regions they service would be much appreciated.

There are lots of small sailmakers about, many mostly repair yacht sails or make small numbers of one-offs.
You want a mast supplier who also does sails?
Speed(?), Pinbax,  maybe time to look at mastmakers' lists of retailers and spot the sailmaker?

If you want anything technical, I'd suggest looking at the closest type of boat and seeing who has development experience that might be applicable. E.g. if I wanted something skiffy, I'd look at Cherubs and Int14's see who makes one-offs for them. If it was a family boat, I'd look around the slower classes. If it was something bigger, I'd look around the small keelboats.
If you don't need top performance or any development work done (say you were making training boats), there are a lot of cover makers and such like who can do the job perfectly competently, they'd just never sell racing sails as they don't have the jockeys or the reputation.
Some sailmakers have found there's more cash and less aggro stitching fabrics for other things, like architectural.