One of our top team riders were looking to build new sails for their F18 Wildcat. We at Blood Red like a challenge and were on hand to help.
Sail Requirements:
- Suitable for a combined crew weight on the lighter side
- Fast sail shape
- Excellent build quality
- Striking appearance and branding
We wanted to work with some of the leading sail designers of today, who have a winning track record, and are open to explore ideas. We talked with Richie Loverings of Hyde Sails (one of the leading makers for small performance boats), who consulted with Grant Piggot and Simon Northrope to produce a fast sail shape and design. The crew weight of Michael Scantlebury and David Harris are on the light side, so they were looking to have something that would work for them in the less dense air of tropical Hong Kong waters, with an ideal wind range between 7-20 knots.
We then spent time exploring sail shapes that would work with computer modelling. Once happy with our requirements, it was over to our in-house design team to create the graphic look that we wanted. The Blood Red design team went about creating bold branding and graphic to make our mark, while taking into consideration the limited choice for materials because we were building to a box rule F18. Lucky we liked the black cloth that is made exclusively for Hyde, and thus our decision to go over to the dark side. Then it was over to the sail loft for execution, where could see it all take shape.