Ulmann Sails made out of Spidertech technology show good speed and durability at the RC circuit in Santa Margherita’s waters.
As an external observer I went to have a look at the sails of Hiroshi, the Italian RC44 helmed by Armando Giulietti. Having followed from remote the results of this team it was about the time that I went to have a close look at our materials and I found out much more.

Hiroshi rounds the mark

The sails have now accumulated more than 100 hours of sailing in all conditions: from the 25+ knots of Cascais to the 4 knots of S.Margherita, sailing in match and fleet race mode. Quite a lot of bad use exaggerated by the fact that the sails fall in the water at every single de-hoist. The pictures I took, once analysed with Spiderscan (a tool used by Authorised Designers and top sailors) showed a good matching with the original design. Adhesion of the layers that constitute the laminate is excellent and sails are as smooth as they were originally manufactured.
I’ll make some generic comments on the situation that could be of interest for some.
First of all I would like to say that this formula is really well thought out. Owner drivers really enjoy it. A good mix of semi-pro and professionals in the crew is the right mix in my view. It makes up as great opportunity for semi-pro’s to learn from the professionals, that are spreading over the fleet in a quite even way. I have seen the tacticians, a fantastic list of AC superstars, being extremely pro-active in coaching and spending time with their own teams. I had the chance to see real professionals in action and I must say that it is fantastic to see the way patiently work on the sailing team.
The boat is extremely technical and versatile. She is capable to allow 5 short races in a day of four knots breeze developing a real impressive speed. She proved to be extremely seaworthy also in the 25 knots of breeze of Cascais. The versatility of this “little AC” is a guarantee for racing excellence and pure fun. One could have thought that Russell presence in the circuit could have killed all the fun. On the contrary, Coutts care in inviting his AC colleagues and that fact that owners helm in fleet races, make the level very even and as a result a team rarely dominates in more than in one race. In S. Margherita, were the conditions were choppy seas and shifty winds, the Aqua team mainly impressed for their regularity. Not the case for Armando Giulietti’s team who is suffering still of lack of regular training. They were leading in some racing and not doing as brilliantly in others.
A part from the Ullman sails I had a look at some good sails from Quantum and North Sails. It is obvious that being this class relatively new, the subtle differences are quite significant. The boat is very sensitive to little changes in sail trimming and the fact that the circuit spreads so significantly from a part of the globe to another, puts the sail designer in front of a difficult decision making process. It is a case where a sail-designer, coach and trimmer can get out the necessary power desired as a result of team work.
We’ll see how fast the development will move on as the number of buttons available limit the number of test sails that can be made. I feel that the tools Spidertech Authorised Designers will give Ullman an edge on the rest of the designers. Time will tell.