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You’d be surprised how much thought, time & effort goes into producing that piece of monofilm that you’ve been blasting up and down with all day! Every brand has a Sail Loft with highly skilled designers and testers trying each season to produce an even better sail.

To find out more, we sent Adam Leah to the GUN Sails loft in Tarifa to see what its all about.....

Intro to Renato Morlotti

Renato Morlotti is the GUN Sails designer. He first started in sail design at the age of seventeen where he got a job working in a sail factory designing open class and catamaran yacht sails. But his passion was windsurfing and he began secretly making windsurfing sails. Luckily for him, Vidar Jensen began using his custom designs and did rather well with them at the PWA World Cup event in Pozo. The sails and consequently Renato caught the eye of the original owner of Gun Sails and he offered Renato a job. He has been with Gun Sails ever since!

STEP 1: Design Concept

In this video, Renato talks about how he interprets the design spec. and goes about creating a sail design to suit.

STEP 2: CAD CAM Design

CAD CAM technology allows you to design the sail and panel shapes on computer and then plot the shapes very accurately onto the sail material using a laser plotter.

With sail design needing accuracy to fractions of a millimetre, this process is a lot less tedious and time consuming than the old process of having to measure and mark every panel manualy onto the sail material. Watch the video to see how Renato designs a sail on his computer and then translates it onto the sail material using this technology.

In the Gun Sails Loft they cut all the panels via this method and then build the sail in the loft in Tarifa, to produce the prototypes. At this stage the prototype is very basic as the objective is to test the shape rather than the durability of the sail. The Test Team take it out, refine it time and time again until everyone is happy that they have exactly the right shape.

STEP 3: Testing

Most brands have a Chief Tester who relays all the information back to the designer from the Test Team. Watch Philipp Vigneron discuss how he tests the sail on & off the water with Renato.

STEP 4: Proto-Type making

The next stage is to send the information to the factory in Sri Lanka to get more prototype sails for the Test Team to sail. These sails are of the proper construction and are therefore tested for durability as well as performance relative to the original prototype. They also have all the important extras such as the final clew design, foot protection and pulley system which again all have to be tested in Tarifa. During this stage, constant feedback is given to Renato who in turn sends this info to the Sri Lankan factory. Watch Renato talk us through this process in the Gun Sails Loft.

STEP 5: Final factory sample

This final sail will have the correct graphics and logos on ready for mass production. This is again checked for performance consistency with the original prototype, before authorising production to start. Once he is happy that the sail is 100% and production begins, Renato’s job is done!

See all the sails together from initial prototype to finished product side by side in the Loft.

Conclusion

As you have seen, sail design is a lengthy process requiring a lot of testing, re-working and constant thought.  There are plenty of opportunities for error along the way, which explains why the companies who work hardest at design, testing and production, consistently produce the best sails on the market.