News Archive

New Sail Materials

RESEARCH and developments in sail technology are paying off for world number one Melges 24 sailor John Pollard and his team Xcellent.

John, who owns Westaway Sails based in Ivybridge, Devon, has been working on developing new material for the mainsail and jib – a D4 Technora fabric which not only provides better ultra violet protection but also better performance on the race track.

The cloth was used for the first time in the Melges 24 nationals held in Falmouth, an event which was won by Team Xcellent along with the John Merricks Trophy dedicated in memory of the Melges 24 sailor.

John said: “It’s the first time I’ve won the nationals – I was third two years ago and missed out by a point last year.

“There were testing conditions throughout the week and speed and control of the sail plan was essential.

“It was a truly fantastic feeling and even more precious after losing by just one point last year. Out of 11 races this year, we won six.”

Although this is the first time John has won the Melges 24 nationals, in the past he has won national and world class events in other classes.

And he said the new sail cloth and the efforts put in by the rest of the team - Kate Pollard, Rob Smith, Phil Rumbelow, Lawrence Crispin, Mickey Schwarz, Charlie Hook and the Westaway Sails Team in Ivybridge were responsible.

He said: “We’ve been working on the material with an associate of ours in Australia and it’s the first time it’s been used in the UK – we’re the first boat in the fleet to have it.

“Critically, performance is unaltered but the longevity is much better. There’s a lot of interest in the cloth in the fleet, especially from Olympic hopefuls Wild Thing.”

The development in the mainsail and jib has followed on from development last year of a new spinnaker which has paid off for the team.

As John said: “We’ve now reached the sweet spot. There was a lot of concentrated development in both the material and design and we’re received orders from several other teams. Now we’re concentrating on the jib and main.

“We have to make sure we choose the right jib for the conditions. We’re working on three shapes, for light winds, for waves and for heavy winds.”

The next event Team Xcellent will take part in will be the Torbole Melges Week taking place at Lake Garda in Italy in July, prior to the Melges 24 Worlds which take place in Marseilles in France in August.