Maine Sailing Partners

Maine Boats Homes and Harbors

Maine Boats Homes & Harbors Magazine has recently upgraded their website.  Now it's up there in quality with their magazine (which has always been excellent.  We like it so much we are supporting it with a listing in their Coastal Directory Check it out.

Brand Evolution

We found this logo on an F-31 reacher brought in for winter service.  From City Island to Connecticut to  the Florida Keys to China . . . .

Reflections on Portland Harbor

The Sail Maine frostbite series ended on Sunday.  (See results a left under 'Events').  It was a good series, but pondering the scene as we left the post race party, it occured to me that Portland had a long way to go yet to be a truly friendly venue for this kind of community sailing.  Fortunately, there is still plenty of untapped waterfront available.  Hopefully, the good folks at Sail Maine can muster the political clout to make it happen...

Asterisk

Flipping through the May edition of Sailing World last week, we came across a full page Doyle Sailmakers ad entitled "DOYLE PERFORMANCE"  The copy reads: " Doyle Sails is proud to have powered Bruce Schwab and his Open 60, Ocean Planet, to a [sic] historic non-stop, solo circumnavigation American record in the Vendee Globe 2004.  Bruce used a TRT Carbon/Vectran jib, Vectran staysail, Twaron genoa, Dacron reacher, and Stormlite Code 5 spinnakers.  Ready to make some history of your own?  Give us a call."

We'd just like to add that Bruce was also powered by an MSP Cuben Fiber mainsail (the only sail Bruce used all the time he was actually sailing).  We really can't fault Doyle for not mentioning someone else's product, but it's fairly common practice for sailmakers who claim boats on their "powered to victory" lists to add an asterisk down to fine print at the bottom that admits "partial inventory."  Consider it added...

Newsworthy

Team Shosholoza's collision with a whale while training near Cape Town, South Africa, made SI.com, CNN.com, and the AP.  While the collison may be of interest to those following the America's Cup, it didn't seem likely to make international news.  An Ellen MacArthur windfall?  Perhaps.  Let's hope this sailing buzz continues.

Rumors from the Front

A January 27, 2005, post on Sailing Anarchy, warns of an impending shortage of carbon fiber due to a rated government purchase order for enough carbon fiber to build 50,000 tent poles.  According to the article, a rated PO trumps all other PO's currently in the pipeline, hence the pending shortage.  Additionally, our suppliers have told us that Spectra is becoming scarce due to the high demand for it in manufacturing the exterior fabric for military flak jackets.

Such rumors occasionally circulate throughout the sailmaking business.  There was concern a few years ago that Allied-Signal Corporation was going to stop manufacturing Pentex due to a decreased demand for it.  According to the rumor, tire manufacturers were using Pentex to reinforce radial tires and had found something better.  The marine industry demand for Pentex wasn't enough to warrant continued manufacture of it.  Allied Signal merged with Honeywell, but it still makes Pentex.

We haven't noticed a shortage of carbon or Spectra yet, but we'll keep you posted . . . or you can always play it safe and buy your new sails now.

Staying warm

Meet Maine Sailing Partner's newest member, Bella.  She is a  9 month old English Pointer and loves coming to the loft  to play with the crew here at MSP.   She is very happy now that she has a new MSP coat to keep her warm in these bone chilling temperatures!  She also doubles as a great moving billboard for us.

Casting Off

This site will contain the postings from the loft of Maine Sailing Partners.  We are a medium size, independent sailmaking company in Yarmouth, Maine.  We hope to give our readers a taste of what life is like in our sailloft.  Feel free to leave comments or ask us questions, and we'll do our best to respond.