600 ‘Challenge’ sails cover Nelson’s Column

NUEVO D.4 HOOD

Christoph 'Tommy' Thomsen would like to inform everyone that Hood Sailmakers in Germany has moved to a new loft as of march 1st. It was formerly the Reckmann / Halsey Lidgard Germany loft. Reckmann stopped sailmaking in September last year, so Hood Germany will fill the gap now. Its a larger loft with 800 square metres of space and will enable them to build much larger sails and more at a time in the future. Please note their new street address on the network page.

Go to top

The new Moody 64 Independence which appeared at the Southampton Boat Show in September 2002 took first place in the Cruising Division Class A and also received the Moody Class Trophy for best performing Moody in the 2002 ARC race that started from Gran Canaria in November.

Click here for pictures in gallery section.

Go to top

Pictured is the new Moody 64 off East Cowes. She is fitted with the Hood vertical batten mainsail.

Go to top

Hood Germany has successfully manufactured and delivered a series of superyacht sails during the season. It started in spring with a staysail for the Bill Tripp 130´ "Alithia", launched by Abeking & Rasmussen in Bremen Germany early this summer. A 16oz single ply Vektron has been selected for this job. Later in the year a full inventory for the legendary Nautor 100´ sloop "Garuda" was built out of Vektron in crescent cut. The main for Garuda obtained one of the new Hood exclusive carbon clew blocks as it is an In-Mast-Furling main. Trials in early August off Porto Cervo have been successfull and showed the performance of the Vektron cloth. Cyclos 2, the 92´ S&S ketch is just undergoing a refit at Royal Huisman Shipyard and Hood Germany recently finished a new six batten Easi-stow-mainsail and a stormjib for that beautifull boat. The old main had to be replaced after 100,000 miles of use in all conditions around the world. Further projects are under preparation.

Details of a contract to replace the sails on the 95ft superyacht 'Be Happy' specified integral lightweight free running clew blocks, able to take immense loads particularly found on in-mast furling mainsails.

Given this challenge Hood Sailmakers of Lymington called together three separate companies to resolve the technical developments needed., The added advantage was that this research and development could be applied to a range of craft including Open 60's and other high - tech cruising and racing yachts.

'Independent Composites' of Bristol created the initial design and loading brief which was then engineered by 'High Modulus' of Hamble. The data thus created allowed the Bristol company to manufacture the units developing outstanding strength to weight characteristics which are inherent in composite structures.

The final, and critical part of the project was to choose a sheave that would handle the loads. This was achieved by 'Marineware' whose range of Italian 'Antal' extra light high strength resin sheaves fitted the bill.

The results are a range of attractive composite blocks which can be supplied for a variety of applications.

Go to top

Hood Germany have created a storm jib for the new 130ft Bill Tripp cruiser, using 16 oz VEKTRON^TM. After extensive testing of the latest weight of VEKTRON^TM high tech sail cloth, developed and woven by the Hood weaving mill in Ireland, the Hood loft in Hamburg was chosen to complete this prestigious contract for delivery at the end of January.

Getting a Hood start

This Dutch youngster is competing in one of the many ‘Optimist’ class sailing races on a lake near Rotterdam using Hood sails from the Van Vliet Loft in Middelharnis, Holland. Hood Sails support and encourage sailing for young people in many different countries.

With the increased interest in bespoke sails from mainland Europe, the world wide Hood Sailmakers operation has recently appointed a new German/Austrian licensee in Hamburg.

Known as Thomsen SEGELMACHEREI ‘made in Hamburg’ the loft is owned and run by Christoph ‘Tommy’ Thomsen who has a Masters Degree in sail making.

With a vast amount of sailing, sail design and sail making behind him Tommy will bring all of these skills together with enthusiasm and a passion for the best quality in sail making to Hood one of the world leaders in the business.

This appointment, coinciding with the Dusseldorf Boat Show confirms the avowed intent of Tim Woodhouse the President and major shareholder, to continue to build on the outstanding status that the company has built up.

‘’With the backing of Hood Sailmakers ‘state of the art’ weaving facilities in Ireland and the latest design and laser cutting  equipment available we are really at the forefront of the German market’’ said Tommy at the recent signing ceremony.

Go to top

In an event such as the BT Global Challenge, teamwork and endurance are two of the most essential qualities that a person can have, and these are the qualities that two companies had to demonstrate at this years race in order to complete a project that was to test both to the limit.

One of these companies is BP, one of the worlds largest petroleum and petrochemicals groups, operating in over 100 countries worldwide. The other is Hood Sailmakers; one of the worlds leading sailmakers who, for the 3rd consecutive time, are providing all the sails for the BT Global Challenge.

BP are currently undergoing a multi million pound corporate re branding which it is hoped reflects BP's new vision of going 'beyond petroleum' and being a force for good in the energy markets throughout the world. According to Joe Murphy, BP's project manager, the change in their corporate identity represents the coming together of five cultures from the five heritage companies that now make up BP.

As part of BP's image restructuring programme they have decided to sponsor this years BT Global Challenge, an event that Joe Murphy feels underpins the core fundamentals of BP, with their commitment to safety and their development of a strong cohesive team throughout the world.

Their decision to sponsor a yacht was however, a late one, which proved a test to Hood Sailmakers who's job it was to inlay the new BP logo into the giant 380 square metre promotional spinnaker.

It was a process that was to take two skilled sailmakers 3 weeks to complete. 'It is the largest and most complex inlay project that we have worked on to date,' said a representative for Hood Sailmakers.

With 300sq metres of the 388sq metre spinnaker being filled by the new Helios logo of BP it is easy to understand why. He went on to say 'each of the Helios bursts had to be cut and let in individually' an extremely long and tedious process.

The size of the project was not the only problem, the 3 dimensional shape of the spinnaker meant that the Helios logo a 2 dimensional object had to be let in, in such a way so that it would not override the spinnaker shape, and fly perfectly once the spinnaker was hoisted.

'The last few months have been unbelievable' said the spokesperson for Hood Sailmakers. 'We have in all produced 48 spinnakers carrying 12 different logos and designs'. Thankfully our team of dedicated individuals were up to the challenge.

Go to top

Sponsors of the BT Challenge get more from their marketing budgets now that Hood are able to re-create logos and graphics onto their spinnakers in-house. Hood has researched the printing process for special materials for several years and have now successfully set up their own spraying booth at the sail loft in Lymington.

The process for printing onto the nylon spinnakers involves dye sublimation with controlled heat onto the nylon with specially developed paints and inks. These can then be masked and sprayed by hand on a wide variety of designs.

A spokesperson for Hood Sailmakers said "The biggest challenge was presented by Save the Children, (supported by Serco) http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/btchallenge. Save the Children have an enormous child pirate with telescope and parrot created and sprayed on a promotional spinnaker for the sponsor.

One of the biggest difficulties was applying a 2 dimensional cartoon illustration onto a 3D shaped spinnaker. In this case we sprayed specially adapted acrylic paints onto the finished sail, which is 351 sq. metres (3777 sq. feet).

All I can say is that the end result is pretty dramatic. We like to offer a complete package at Hood and are never afraid to push the leading edge of technologies."

Hood will create a total of 36 graphic spinnakers, carrying 12 different logo styles and graphics. This follows Hood's research into the very best performing spinnaker nylon where over 20 products were evaluated using an immense amount of mechanical and UV light testing methods. Hood recommended the Challenge to settle on 'AIRX', manufactured by Bainbridge International because of its low stretch and high tear resistancy, which were confirmed in tests undertaken at Hood's own textile mill in Ireland.

Project Director of the Challenge Business, Andrew Robert adds; "We've a long and fruitful relationship with Hood and have not chosen Hood light-heartedly for the 3rd successive year. Hood have, during the last ten years, made over 500 sails with a total weight of 29 tonnes or more and a retail value of £2.3 million. The performance and competitive pricing has been consistent throughout and what sets Hood apart most of all is their attention to detail and relentless testing. We can rely on Hood to leave nothing to chance."

Go to top

Long distance sailors will appreciate the advantages of a hanked on sail but will also have empathy with changing sails in anything other than fine conditions. Despite the hank's inherent problems, it has hardly been changed for over 100 years. Hood Sailmakers have taken the initiative to have the hank re-designed, working with Herm Sprenger GmbH in Germany, to provide a solution for their client - the BT Global Challenge, whose crews have to change sails in the freezing seas of the Southern Ocean. A major problem with the traditional hank is the damage caused to sails by the plunger when running and the difficulty in operating with cold hands on one side of the sail.

Says the Hood Sailmakers representative: 'The BT Challenge sparked the initiative but with the size of boats increasing and consequently the diameter of the rigging, the conventional design was simply too restricting. What we have now is a totally safe, completely user friendly hank which will be welcomed universally.'

The hank opens to the side, which releases easily when triggered but it is still inherently safe. It is a stronger, brass, investment cast hank which can have a pull string toggle for easier operation with cold hands. The side opening helps clear the forestay more easily.

Go to top

The maxi yacht Kialoa V is being chartered by British American Tobacco to sail to Europe, KSA and Asia promoting John Player Gold Leaf this year. Based on the branding design supplied by the client, the brief to Hood Sailmakers was to promote this cigarette brand using the huge sail area to its best advantage. Hood working closely with the printing industry has achieved this and has consequently used some very special printing techniques at their weaving mill in Ireland.

Hood's unique VEKTRON® / polyester woven sailcloth has been dyed red at source and the traditional John Player Gold Leaf logo featuring the Sailor has been produced by a combination of dye sublimination and hand painting using specially produced inks. The whole image is split across the headsail and mainsail. Hood's attention to detail can be seen right through to red leather reinforcement pieces and red eyelets to focus attention on the main image.

Says Joe Outred of the renamed Gold Leaf: "We chose Hood because they are able to take personal ownership of the project. Having their own mill allows Hood to be experimental and more adventurous in their offering which was what was needed for this special project."

Go to top