Latest / Ben Taylor Podcast / Peter Bresnan | OneSails' Tradewind Sail
Transcript
- Hello, everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Ben Taylor Podcast.This episode is brought to you by the Superyacht Services Guide, a worldwide trusted directory of superyacht services all over the world, one of which is One Sails.Hello.And so you're in there because you're recommended by captains.Could you just give us a little overview of what you guys do?Uh, One Sails Palma is a full-service sail loft.We have, uh, about 1,000 square meters of sail manufacturing and servicing surface, and then underneath, uh, that we have, um, a rigging and composites department.And we've also got design and engineering and logistics.So yeah, we employ about 20 people.Uh, and we specialize in, in, um, fixing boat bits.And so what, what does a typical customer look like?So I, I imagine they arrive in Palma with all sorts of problems.What problems do they have?How can you help them?So my background, I'm a naval architect, but I started boat building and then rig building and then sail making.So those are the 3 topics that I touch.Those are the things that I've, uh, enjoyed doing throughout my lifetime.So that's what we offer, uh, everything related with sails, uh, rigging, and composites, and as a designer and naval architect, obviously design and engineering services as well.So our typical customerActually, there isn't really a typical customer.Our, our smallest customers own Optimists, and they race in the Bay of Palma in their little Optimists with their 2.4 square meter sails.Yeah.Um, but we've also got, you know, superyacht customers with, you know, 40, 50, 60 meter yachts.Um, so everything and anything in between really.Right.So it probably spans from a tiny sail to the biggest on the planet.Yes.Yes.And- Yes.Absolutely.Yeahwhat kind of problems do the superyachts have?Oh, my God.They have every type of problem.We call them champagne problems, but they're still problems.So, you know, a sail that's gotten torn on a, uh, accidental jibe, uh, some servicing on sails that are getting a little bit older, some ropes that wear out that need changing, uh, some accidental encounters with, uh, buoys or other boats that damages their, the composites.So it could be boat building repairs.It could be emergency sail repairs before they head off to the next charter, or they head off to the Caribbean or come back from the Caribbean and ready for the racing season.Um, they could be, they could have been in the Caribbean, done some racing, damaged some sails, and need some replacement before, before the Mediterranean racing season starts.Um, or it could be a long-term project.Um, they want a, a solar roof or a solar T-top, and our composites and design department will sort of take care of that.Um- And so for a, for a servicing a sail, are we talking about little tears and rips in them?Are we talking about replacing material?What kind of servicing can you actually carry out?Servicing goes from, "My sail's full of mildew or full of Sahara brown sand," through to- Mm-hmm"I've got this enormous tear in my sail.Please take it off the boat.Uh, you know, wash it.Uh, replace these panels that are broken, uh, and then bring it back to the boat, fit it, and, uh, and off we go again."So it could be a, you know, a few hours of repair, or it could be a couple of weeks, depending on the, on the size and the complexity of the, of the repair.And so- So yeah, pretty much anythingso what's a typical one?So te- tell us a little story.You don't have to disclose the boat or anything like that.We don't wanna upset anybody.Sure.But r- or what does a typical customer look like in terms of the journey of what they arrive in Palma with, how they, they can engage with you, and what they leave with?Typical story is we were just having a lovely sail dead downwind, and we went to sleep, left all the sails up.Obviously, a gust came up and destroyed the, um, some of the sails whilst we were sleeping, and we've got this enormous mess here.Take this mess.Can you fix it, please?Please help.And we wanna leave tomorrow.Yeah.That's the sort of typical story, um, which is, yeah, it's all, it's all good.It's all about r- uh, about enjoying ourselves whilst cruising, so.Yeah.And on the, on the innovation front, you've, um, developed this thing called the Tradewind sail.What's that about?What does that do?So the Tradewind sail is, once again, not a new concept.It's been around for forever.It's basically the idea that you want to go dead downwind with the wind, and so you deploy one sail on each side of the boat.Uh, that's been done for n- I mean, I'm gonna say hundreds of years, but as materials evolve and technologies improve, uh, you can reinvent that a little bit.Uh, in the same way as Steve Jobs had that incredible moment when he said, "This is the iPhone," and he basically invent- reinvented what the mobile phone was to the whole world.I'm not saying it's quite that important, but it's a little bit like that.I think it puts a- An existing moneyed market, but- Yeah.Yeah.arguably- Well, actually-arguably as important- Yeah.For us, it's importantif you wanna get from A to B on a sailboat.Yeah.So- But, but what are those differences?So what are the fundamental differences in how it works?The fundamental differences are basically threefold.You've got the original design is 2 genoas.Genoas are, are designed to go upwind.Well, we don't use a genoa design.We use a more like a Code 0 gennaker hybrid design.So straightaway that's more oriented towards reaching and running than going upwind.Why does thatWhy is that important?Because at certain wind angles, a genoa is just not efficient, and it just flaps, and it just sags down and doesn't generate any power.So take an, take an old design and say, well, what are the disadvantages of it?The design, that's one of them.The next one is the materials.They're traditionally made of quite heavy Dacron canvas or whatever.Um, and we've decided to make it extremely light.We're making it out of spinnaker material, and the reason for that is so that its operating range can multiply.Instead of going from 10 to 20 knots, it can go from 4 to 30 knots of wind speed.So it also had to be, um, more multipurpose, which is why it's called a multipurpose.Uh, and then finally we've incorporated some of our in-house technology, which is-What we call cableless furling.When you want to furl the sail, you normally have an anti-torsion cable.Thick, heavy, expensive anti-torsion cable.And why is that a pain?W- once the sail is down, you've got to somehow stuff it into a sack, stuff it into a little corner of a boat without taking too much space.Our sails integrate what we call IFS, which is integrated furling structure.Basically, we just get rid of the cable completely, and we build that cable structure into the lens or the luff of the sail.So it doesn't have an anti-torsion cable.It's immensely lighter than anything that's been done before, and it has a different design.Those 3 things I feel genuinely make it multipurpose.So the inno- the, the innovative part of it is that it's, it's a sail that can replace 3 sails, and sincerely and genuinely, customers who are buying brand-new boats right now are buying a single sail from us for downwind, whereas they would've bought 3.So they would've bought a Code 0, a gennaker, and a spinnaker to go dead downwind.Now they're buying one sail from us.So it's not wonderful for business, but it's more sustainable.It's much cheaper for the customer, and frankly, it's, it's a bit fairer.You know, you have a sail that can do, uh, 90% efficiency 3 things.So it's much easier for the customer to handle.There's less dangerous, dangers from switching sails, more storage space, less cost, and it's easier to handle.So that's also part of the innovation, making a multipurpose sail that, that isn't compromised.Yeah, d- Normally, big compromises occur.Did this also get a DAME Award at Metstrade?It did get a DAME Award, yes.Um, I was very pleasantly surprised, uh, but the DAME Award judges said that it was such a intelligent use of, of budget, and it was such an intelligent use of materials because they're not complex materials.You can find these materials anywhere in the world.It's not a fancy laminate, so it cannot delaminate.Um, so rather than trying to make something that's extremely expensive, we're trying to make it open to everybody.So, and actually, it's sort of grown arms and legs because people who are day sailing are saying to us, "Well, actually, we wanna use your Tradewind sail because it's so easy to handle.I just wanna go out for a day sail in, in the Bay of Palma.Sell me one of these sails, and that's what I'll use."So it's sort of grown its own little pathway amongst the sailing fraternity, which was a, which is a pleasant surprise, so.Yeah, and the, the sail making market is fairly consolidated.There's very, very few players.So as a, as a s- I suppose a smaller independent player in that space, what are the advantages of people coming to people like yourselves rather than the, the bigger, the bigger players out, out there?Yeah, that's a, that's an excellent point.It is super consolidated.We have an enormous group that controls nearly 70% of the world's sail market- Wowwhich is, uh, something that's never occurred in the history of sail making, so that's pretty unexpected, um, and unprecedented really.And so we need to reinvent ourselves.We need to be more innovative, be closer to the customer.We have to be more responsive.We have to do those things that maybe these behemoths sail making companies perhaps cannot achieve.You know, be, uh, be very responsive, very reactive, very quick.The Tradewind sail project came from a young family that wanted to go around the world with very little sailing experience, and, and we reacted very quickly.Within a week we had a, we had a concept, we had a design, we had a, an initial, uh, proposal for him, which he loved straight away, and then 2, 3 weeks later he had the sail on board.Wow.And I think that's- Yeah, it's more nimbleI think that's what customers want.It's difficult to do.These big players can't do that that f- Yeahthat fast.Yeah.But we do definitely have to, uh, we have to keep pushing and keep innovating because this enormous, this enormous sail making group will swallow all of us up otherwise.But yeah, it's, it's a challenge and, um, yeah, for me it's, it's, it's about finding ways to innovate and to be a little bit different and, and I enjoy that.I enjoy getting close to the customer and, and, and seeing him smile.To be honest, that's what really motivates me is seeing the customer using our products and smiling.It's, it's amazing.I, I almost don't need to get paid.Yeah, mission complete.Happy days.Yes, absolutely.Yeah.Peter- Yeahthanks for coming on the podcast.No, my pleasure.Great pleasure hearing about it.Thank you for the great questions.Thank you so much.Yeah.Thank you.Thank you.Everybody, if you enjoy content like this, make sure you're following here to see plenty more of it.You can find One Sails here in Palma and on the Superyacht Services Guide.All being well, we'll see you again on the next episode.Goodbye for now.Goodbye.