Cups' New Sail

Baby's got new shoes and Cups has got a new sail! Winston and the Ullman Sail crew came through and delivered our new foresail … earlier than promised. Under-promise … over-deliver … works every time. We were originally quoted 3+ weeks, but Winston fit us into another less-hurried sailor's slot (thank you, Berserk), and babysat our sail through the entire fabrication process. He kept us in the loop all the way … plan approval, cutting, seaming, UV, hardware, QC.

We were hoping we'd see the sail by early next week, but with Winston's constant updates, we were optimistic we'd see it even sooner than the original estimate. This would give us time to check it out and still not have to rush to meet our extended visitor permit expiration date. When he called to schedule the delivery and fitting, we were thrilled. “Shall we pay the balance before the delivery?”, we queried. “Wait, till the sail is up and you're happy. Then we'll tend to the final payment.” Great!

We had also sent our mainsail over to Ullman for a quick once-over. We'd inspected it ourselves, but thought as long as they were fabricating a new sail for us, it wouldn't hurt to have the professionals check it out. They reported that the main was in fine condition, except a wee bit of chafe on the batten pockets … easily remedied.

The morning was clear and calm when Winston arrived with the sails. He and an assistant attached the new yankee and hoisted it up the furler. It was cut a skosh higher than the last sail to clear the bow pulpit rail, something that had irritated us about the last sail. It looked great, but was quite a bit larger than we imagined it would be. It was classified as a #2 yankee, but really it was a replacement for our old jib, rather than a replacement for the yankee, as we expected. Where did the communications go wrong?

Our new staysail, fabricated for us by Ullman in Durban, was exactly what we had ordered and has performed well over the 800 miles from Durban to Cape Town. In all deference to Ullman, I guess we should have known the exact measurements of the old yankee … what we thought we ordered. We had sent the yankee to them and asked for a quote on both the repair, as well as the fabrication of a new sail, a replacement with a couple of minor mods. They came to measure and evidently disregarded the existing sail measurements in favor of what they thought we wanted. Now what?

Well, we'll keep the new sail, of course, and get rid of the old jib. In the meantime, the old yankee is back at the sail loft for a rush repair. The checkout clock is ticking once again. Sigh! There's never a dull  moment on this boat.

A Lofty Invitation

Having had a new staysail made by Ullman Sails in Durban last January and thus far really liking it, we felt very confident that ordering a replacement yankee from Ullman in Cape Town was a good move. The existing yankee had caused us lots of problems over the last few years and repairing it again seemed like money down the drain. David reminded me that the old headsail was over five years old and had seen over 20,000 hard miles … southern New Zealand, the Chathams, Tasmania, the Great Australian Bight, an Indian Ocean crossing. I had hoped, of course, it would last forever, but then I still believe in the Easter Bunny.

We didn't know much about Ullman Sails. We're familiar with North Sails, the largest sailmaker in the world and then there's Quantum and Doyle and Hood Sails and Rolly Tasker Sails and a host of others. Ullman is actually the #5 sailmaker in the world, thanks to renowned American competitive sailor David Ullman. He started Ullman Sails in 1967 in Newport Beach, California and has been intimately involved in the business ever since. In 2013, Ullman combined forces with previous competitor, Jannie Reuvers Sails in South Africa. Ullman Sails is represented in 32 countries of the world, including 42 full service sail lofts. This means that if we have problems with the yankee, as we did with our previous sail, we have some recourse for service.

A good number of  Ullman's sails are made right here in Cape Town. We'd become friendly with our sales rep, Winston, over the past couple of weeks and when he offered to give us a tour of the loft, we jumped at the chance.

We've visited many sail lofts over the years … usually small ones. They consist of wide open floor spaces with canvas spread out in varied stages of  in-process sails. A couple of long arm, heavy-duty zig-zag sewing machines are recessed into the floor to allow easy stitching of the sails. Rolls of Dacron and colored Sunbrella UV-material are lined up along the walls. Scraps of fabric are here and there and the place is usually dusty, the hum of sewing machines and the tap of hammers providing background noise. We weren't quite prepared for the size of Ullman's facilities nor the number of people working nor the number of sails in process. It doesn't look like much from the outside as we pulled up over the curb and squeezed ourselves into a tiny parking space. Looks can be deceiving.

Ullman Sails' facility is huge and spread out over a city block in several buildings. We visited four multi-storied buildings and each area was a beehive of activity. After a digital design is set, the measurements are entered into a laser-cutter which works constantly, precision-cutting and numbering panel pieces for  each sail.

The cut pieces are removed in order and moved to an assembly area where they are spread out on the floor, taped and ready to be sewn. UV is added later, then hardware in a different area and finally quality control is performed. I've oversimplified the process significantly, but that's the gist of it. A smooth, efficient work flow producing thousands of sails each year.

We were intrigued with their FiberPath sail construction: thousands of carbon fibers woven into a sail shape and then bonded and double-laminated. There's minimal sewing involved. There is little stretch and the primary and secondary loads on the sail are dispersed more effectively. These sails are known for speed and performance … not traits for which Nine of Cups has ever been known. The cost? Though we felt we were getting a good price for our sail, it was still quite painful to the budget. Our yankee in a FiberPath material would have effectively been a little over double the price. We'll stick with Dacron this time around.

Winston has assured us the sail will be completed in the specified timeframe. As much as we like Cape Town, we're looking forward to the day when we can sail away … with our new sail.