 © North SailsIn 1990, Luc Dubois and J.P. Baudet, saw the
future of sailmaking from a different perspective. In a back room of the
North Sails loft in Milford, CT, far from curious eyes, Baudet spent
his days in a hang-gliding harness, floating over a wooden mold, like
some high-tech Peter Pan. By hand Baudet was gluing Kevlar yarns under
tension to a sheet of Mylar, which was draped over a three dimensional
wooden plug. The goal was to form a perfectly shaped J/24 headsail in
one continuous 3-D piece, rather than with myriad seams - the
traditional method of shaping sails. Some 4500 meters of Kevlar yarn was
painstakingly oriented to match the loads in the sail. Baudet worked
hard to lay them down under equal tension, so as to lock in the shape.
 © North SailsNext, a second piece of Mylar was placed over
the top, completing the "sandwich." The sail was vacuum-bagged
together, compressing the two pieces of Mylar "bread" around the Kevlar
"meat." Finally, the glue was set off by the application of heat, in
this case with an ordinary iron! This sandwich construction was more
boat building than sailmaking. In fact, the idea of molding sails had
occurred to Baudet when studying boat building back home in Switzerland
at age 17. Later, he and his friend Luc Dubois brought the idea to
North, and the project was set in motion. Coincidentally, in 1980,
Eckart Wagner, then president of North Sails Surf (i.e., windsurfing),
had received a patent in Germany for molded sails reinforced with
fibers.
By 1990, J.P. and Luc produced the J/24 genoa. The sail held its shape
in strong winds and stood up to wear and tear. It was also 33% lighter
than a "normal" J/24 headsail. Without seams, the sail was remarkably
smooth, like glass. For North, this was the beginning of
three-dimensionally laminated sails, or "3DL®."
Most modern sails achieve their three-dimensional shape through the
contour of numerous panels of sailcloth sewn together in a process
called broadseaming. Lowell North pioneered this process in modern
sailmaking and much of North's success has stemmed from its ability to
utilize this process successfully.
 © North Sails3DL takes this process to the next step. Instead
of relying on flat cloth with curved edges, the 3DL process molds the
entire sail over a three-dimensional mold.
3DL sails are fast because they are up to 20% (and sometimes more)
lighter than a conventional sail, stretch less, and have a wider
effective wind range (which means potentially fewer sails in your
inventory). 3DL more efficiently utilizes each individual yarn because
it is laid smooth and continuous - with no breaks or bending at seams -
in the same shape that it is expected to take when sailing.
3DL sails are currently built in Minden, Nevada, in the largest and most
sophisticated sailmaking facility in the world. Programmable molds are
draped with Mylar film and then a computer-controlled system applies
precisely tensioned yarn over the Mylar. Additional 3DL molds have
recently been put into operation in North's manufacturing facility in
Sri Lanka.
The molds can be adjusted to shape sails of widely varying cambers.
Sewing is limited to the corners, edges or attachment points of the
sails.
It is not over-dramatizing to state that North literally bet its future
on 3DL, given the sizeable investment it made and continues to make. For
North and its customers, the future is now! |