Independant Sail makers
Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: Dinghy classes
Forum Name: Dinghy development
Forum Discription: The latest moves in the dinghy market
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12309
Printed Date: 07 Jul 25 at 12:56pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Independant Sail makers
Posted By: iGRF
Subject: Independant Sail makers
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 4:55pm
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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. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Replies:
Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 5:16pm
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Be interesting to see what you come up with, I need to find a sailmaker who suits me.
Dynamic Sails in Emsworth seem to have a good reputation, but my experience is that if you have strong feelings about what you want you need to specify it more clearly than I managed to. |
Posted By: davidyacht
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 5:38pm
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Dick Batt or Frank Rowsell or HD or impact Sails (Andy Tunnicliffe)? it might be worth asking the sailmaker to advise if what you are asking is totally bonkers before he takes your hard earned ... You can still ask him to proceed ... But they tend to know what will work ------------- Happily living in the past |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 5:39pm
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It's very difficult to break through with some sailmakers and in truth I haven't found one yet exactly on my wave length, but I did have an excellent relationship with a young sailboard sailmaker and managed to influence another eventually, but it's a world of ego's and none of them like to acknowledge, a)You know better, or b)Perhaps don't know how to get what you want but don't want to let you know that.
But that's not my quest right now, I'm looking for a distribution system for a new product that might suit sailmakers.. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 5:42pm
Are they one company or three individuals? And if so what are their trading styles to obtain address tel no? Also some of these guys generally get associated with a sailing club or group of clubs, if you could ad that info it would be great.. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Posted By: JimC
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 5:50pm
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battsails.com
rowsellsails.co.uk hdsails.com |
Posted By: davidyacht
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 6:37pm
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And impact marine.co.uk ------------- Happily living in the past |
Posted By: davidyacht
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 6:39pm
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impactmarine.co.uk ------------- Happily living in the past |
Posted By: jaydub
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 6:55pm
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There's more than you think around: Jon Clarke: http://www.edgesails.com/ Tim Harper: http://timharperboats.co.uk/sails Dave Gebhard: http://www.tridentuk.com/gb/cover-sails/trident-sails.html There's probably more that I could come up with if thought about it for more than 5 minutes. ;) Speed sails are subcontract manufactured by Banks. Jim Hunt and Andy 'Taxi' Davis who used to run the sailmaking side of Speeds are now HD sails. Jim and Taxi at HD or Andy Tunnicliffe at Impact would be at or near the top of my list. |
Posted By: Roger
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 7:38pm
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I think there are probably more than most of us think.... http://www.exesails.com/ Exe Sails |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 8:02pm
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No, I know there are lots of them, the same as there are lots of sailing clubs and regions, which is why it would be good to pull them altogether into a commercial list which I'm surprised hasn't been done before. It must have at some time in the past. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Posted By: jaydub
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 8:54pm
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There was once an Association of British Sail Makers that used to have a full page ad in Y&Y magazine. Prominent among them was the king of small sail makers: Mike Mac http://mcnamara-sails.co.uk/ There are far fewer than there used to be, e.g there is no dinghy loft with an hour and a half of Manchester.
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Posted By: Paramedic
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 11:05pm
Tim Harper? |
Posted By: jaydub
Date Posted: 11 Feb 16 at 11:56pm
Over an hour and a half for me, hence the comment. He is my normal port of call for sail repairs. Next closest are Andy at Impact and a kiwi guy in Harrogate. It was much easier when Keith Atkinson was still in the trade.
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Posted By: gordon1277
Date Posted: 12 Feb 16 at 9:29am
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Grant Piggot he tends to specialize in Cat sails but depending upon your cunning plan he may be suitable.
gpsails.com Warsash. Also a lot bigger but seem to be wanting to get back into one design stuff are Hydes ------------- Gordon Lossc |
Posted By: didlydon
Date Posted: 12 Feb 16 at 10:19am
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Here you go: http://www.northropsails.com/ Have you had any dealings with these guys? Simon is the chap to speak to..... Very accomodating Based at Ramsgate harbour. Cheers Don. ------------- Vareo 365 |
Posted By: RS400atC
Date Posted: 12 Feb 16 at 1:18pm
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. |
Posted By: fudheid
Date Posted: 12 Feb 16 at 1:19pm
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think part of the problem is that quite a few sail lofts that say 'independant' are an outlet for imports? Is that a problem? not really, by independant do you mean no franchisee? like hyde, north, ullmans, banks..... bear in mind that no membrane sail is made in the uk. finished maybe. but not made... ooh what a grey area 'Independant sailmaker' as a term is.... the whole manufacturer from start to finsh and for that to be in the UK. I see so many sail lofts purporting to be sailmakers when in fact they are importing in the large proportion of their work..... ------------- Cheers you only me from over the sea...... |
Posted By: turnturtle
Date Posted: 12 Feb 16 at 3:11pm
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most independent sailmakers (or franchise holders e,g. Ullmans or the North lofts) will take on commissions and offer repairs etc. Take your pick.... some will specialise in areas which are better suited to individual needs than others. I've gone to the effort to actually ad the links to my top selection of people I would want to work with on a custom dinghy project if I were doing one: http://www.dolphinsails.com http://www.pinbax.co.uk http://www.gosails.com http://www.edgesails.com http://www.sailingbarntgreen.com/SuggittSails.htm http://www.hdsails.com/blog/" rel="nofollow - http://www.hdsails.com/blog/ http://www.goachersails.co.uk http://wirralsail.co.uk http://www.sailrepair.co.uk http://www.tridentuk.com/gb/cover-sails/trident-sails.html http://www.jkasailmakers.co.uk/sailmaking.html http://www.ultimatesails.co.uk http://banks.co.uk http://www.jeckells.co.uk http://www.ullmansails.co.uk/sailmakers-plymouth.htm http://www.lennonsails.com http://morgansails.com" rel="nofollow - http://morgansails.com http://www.gibsonsails.com https://www.cygnus-sails.com http://www.sanders-sails.co.uk http://www.gpsails.com/Grant_Piggott_Sailmaker.html http://www.nandjmussettsails.co.uk http://test.parkerandkaysailmakers.com/sails/ http://www.onesails.co.uk http://www.crusadersails.com http://www.solosails.com http://www.owensails.com http://www.saturnsails.co.uk http://www.saildoctor.co.uk http://www.southcoastsails.com/Home.html http://www.nickyscanvasworks.com/sailclinic http://www.swiftsails.co.uk/ http://www.lucas-sails.com/#!boat-sails/c3eb http://www.flewsails.co.uk http://www.dynamicsails.com" rel="nofollow - http://www.dynamicsails.com |
Posted By: fudheid
Date Posted: 12 Feb 16 at 3:36pm
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its a good list but still missing loads...and a few errors.... there are 153 that have taken the time to fill in a yellow pages free advert...https://www.yell.com/ucs/UcsSearchAction.do?keywords=sail+makers&location=United+Kingdom&scrambleSeed=1689596770 and then there are probably quite a few more that still don't come up. i think the now (rightly) defunct association of British sailmakers was a bit of a crock! actually just realised, here you are on the internet, so you must be on a smart phone, or tablet or even a laptop /desktop.... have you tried using google???
 ------------- Cheers you only me from over the sea...... |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 12 Feb 16 at 4:01pm
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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. ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |
Posted By: dynamicsails
Date Posted: 17 Aug 16 at 12:25am
Hi Jim I looked up your iCanoe jib order out of interest as no news is usually good news in sailmaking. We've had more excellent feed back during this year with many new classes including the 18ft Skiff and Fireballs all fitting first time out and performing very well indeed. What may we have missed from the specification you provided? anything we can help with drop me a line. Dave D Your sailmaker... |
Posted By: Dougaldog
Date Posted: 17 Aug 16 at 8:21am
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Graeme, If you're looking for a sailmaker that has wider financial opportunities, then try David Banks at Banks sails. His business contacts are as good as any that you'll find out there! D
------------- Dougal H |
Posted By: gordon1277
Date Posted: 17 Aug 16 at 9:18am
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Hi Graham
Probabley one of the biggest local sail makers is Sanders sails in Lymington. Mostly yachts but does dinghys as well. Many years ago made me a huge 505 kite. Not so good on a tight reach! Peter Sanders is pretty switched on about business. ------------- Gordon Lossc |
Posted By: iGRF
Date Posted: 17 Aug 16 at 10:45am
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..  ------------- https://www.corekite.co.uk/snow-accessories-11-c.asp" rel="nofollow - Snow Equipment Deals https://www.corekite.co.uk" rel="nofollow - New Core Kite website |