The Evolution of Sail Making: From Traditional Craft to Modern Science

The Historical Roots of Sail Making

Today, opening a new sail loft and finding qualified staff is at least as difficult in sail making as in any other trade. Through the centuries, sail makers were based in ports, ready to build or repair sails. Most seagoing vessels of any stature generally sailed with two suits of sails and would, if at all possible, only carry out fairly minor repairs while at sea. Lofting was the original term for tracing or laying out a new sail. At the time, the sails were traced with line held in place by awls, all within the sail maker’s loft.

Sail Making in the Royal Navy and Beyond

The Royal Navy never really had a sail makers’ code or manual. Plans were recorded, but the building skills were the property of the sail maker who handed down his knowledge to the apprentice sail makers. Some form of control was applied to the trade during the American Civil War. The northern fleet had limited cloth stocks early on in the war and deemed it necessary to license sail makers. Each would register and identify their sails by a personalized logo at the tack of the sail. Only in the last fifteen years have we had our Blue Book defining how a North Sail should be built. This documentation and its continual renewal is a genuinely difficult task—no wonder the Royal Navy did not try.

Technological Reflections in Early Sails

Early sails, such as those used by the Vikings, showed signs of technological reflection as they supported the sail cloth with crossed fibers to spread the loads. This is fairly common in other early sails, such as those used on the Nile. Despite centuries of sail making, the craft has remained a specialized trade. Even today, there are not that many sail makers around.

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Personal Journey in Sail Making

I have always made my own sails, though I never imagined sail making as a serious job. Even today, my second son, who is serving an apprenticeship with the famous rigging company THL from Lymington and Falmouth, says that one day he might take the company over! I have only heard “maybes” and “mights” on this subject.

Modern Advancements in Sail Making

In a changing world, sail making has evolved considerably over the short time I have been involved (professionally just over thirty years now). Marc Fitzgerald, the skipper of Sojana, joked last week with Tin Tin, our renowned sail maker in Antigua, as we worked on the valve system on the Aramid/Carbon No. 2 with inflatable battens, that “this time next year we’ll be plumbers.”

The Early Days of Sail Design

My first introduction to making sails as a child was Boker and Budds’ book. I believe they were linked with Jeckel Sails, one of the oldest established sail makers in the UK. At Musto and Hydes, at the age of eighteen, my first job was not a glamorous one, but I observed with great interest our research department that would try sails on a horizontal rig, note changes, go sailing, and then modify the mylar patterns that were rolled and conserved.

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The Shift from Craft to Science

In the seventies, the materials were advancing, allowing for new shapes, but the technology remained the same. Over the past thirty years, sail making has become more of a science. My early days with North Sails involved learning to use early design programs, powerful arithmetical tools appealing to someone with a strong mathematics background like me.

Advancements in Sail Design and Engineering

The next stage for several projects was to go beyond defining sail shape to implement computer sail design and structural load analysis. Now, the shape was right, and the material distribution, patch size, etc., would be proportionate to give longevity and shape retention. This work has become specialized, and for a young post-graduate, there are a number of openings.

Collaborative Projects and Modern Tools

For example, with an interesting project like the three Holland America Line ships, I worked in partnership with Ernst Looser from St. Maarten, Brian Doyle, the cloth designer within our group out of Connecticut, and Andy Mitchel, our designer in Cape Town.

The Role of the Modern Sail Maker

Sail making is not yet a dinosaur. Though our rotary molded sails, our 3DL sails, or centralized production are all having a great effect on the business, in a service loft, the sail maker with scissors and awls still has his place. His need to fully understand the new materials and techniques is what has changed, and a sail maker’s choice to specialize in a given field is a new option in this trade.

An Invitation to Join the Craft

The thought that even after years, you still learn something each day is a reality as soon as one travels and opens one’s eyes and mind as a sail maker. So, who wants to join me?

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Andrew Dove is Area Manager for North Sails Caraibes, based in Guadeloupe.

Andrew Dove has written for ALL AT SEA since 2004.