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The business of sailmaking has changed. Enter one of the big brands and you’d once be among the leading edge of people, production, and ideas. But as production moved offshore and paid crew increased, so did job opportunities at the sail loft. The rock stars aren’t all sailmakers anymore.
But even with this change, there is no better place to improve sailing skills than working at a sail loft. Aside from the typical employee benefits of health care and retirement savings, working with sails and sailors keeps the mind ticking and opportunities flowing.
In this report by Quantum Sails, Global Director of Customer Care Charles Saville provides an update on the job roles and the approach for employment:
Charles Saville explains that no matter the sailmaking position you aspire to, it is helpful to begin by gaining experience in sail repair and service, as it will give you a solid foundation to build on. Look for a position as a service technician or apprentice at a loft to get a sense for the lay of the land in a sailmaking facility.
While it could take up to a year for this initial training, traditional sailmaking continues to evolve with service technicians rapidly expanding their skillset to include outdoor, client facing engagement and selling.
From traditional sails to cruising, racing, and mega-yacht sails, sails are vast and varied, and it takes time and dedication for an aspiring sailmaker to learn all the intricacies and skills required. Anyone new to the profession should be prepared to spend time familiarizing themselves with the products both on and off the water.
If this sounds like a large investment of time and energy, that’s because it is. “Be aware that you’re not going to walk into a loft and become a sailmaker right out of the gate,” says Saville. “While you can pick up the basic concepts and skills within a few months, it takes years to master the profession, but if you stick with it, you’ll be rewarded with a fulfilling lifelong career.”
Apprentices and service technicians will be exposed to many facets of sailmaking, from repairing existing sails to building new sails. As opposed to working in sail production facilities, service facilities offer the best opportunity for beginning sailmakers to work on the greatest variety of sails and build their foundational understanding of sailmaking more quickly…
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Okay maybe the whole robot thing has gone a step too far…
We are now at the end of the Maxi season so time for a bit of a round-up… Overall this year has been remarkably successful for the International Maxi Association. Especially given the global picture at the start of 2021. That said, inevitably with the continuing pandemic, the events in the early part of the year had to take place under considerable restriction with travel between European countries and even regions within those countries remaining extremely limited.
How many minutes of sailing have you seen covered on your TV in the past few Olympics? We, the sailing public, would of course like to see more. In an effort to make it more exciting we changed to faster, more exciting boats and even foiling but there has been little change in the amount of mainstream coverage sailing has received anywhere in the world. Why is this important? Especially as we’d like to see our sport grow and greater mainstream media coverage is one way to help that…
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