A Q&A with Peter Bresnan ONE Palma’s founder and director

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 2 Sep 2016 For the past eight years, ONE Palma (formerly OneSails Spain) has been making a fine name for themselves in European yachting circles, first as a sailmaker and more recently with refit work. As a result, the company experienced an evolution in names from OneSails Spain to OneSails Palma, to its current iteration as ONE Palma.

While the names have changed, the firm’s commitment to performing high-quality work has stayed consistent. Today, ONE Palma operates as a full-service loft that specializes in marine-related work ranging from sailmaking to rigging, as well as composites design, manufacturing and repair. ONE Palma currently focuses on yachts from 20 to 100 feet, LOA.

Recently, ONE Palma and McConaghy Boats-legendary boatbuilders who have crafted some of the planet’s fastest sailboats, including Wild Oats XI-entered a business partnership. I caught up with Peter Bresnan, ONE Palma’s founder and director, to learn more about this new direction for his firm.

What kind technologies do you use when building your high-end laminate sails?
Our laminate sails are single-piece membranes with no glued joints or panels. We do not use Mylar film. We are exclusive distributors of OneSails sails in Palma and the Balearics, and [we] design, produce and repair what are considered some of the best sails on the market.

What choice of fibers does ONE Palma offer its clients?
We use high-modulus carbon fibres, Technora and Twaron as well as high-modulus Dyneema yarns.

Can you tell me about how the deal to be the exclusive sailmaker for McConaghy Boats came about?
We are not exclusive sailmakers for McConaghy Boats. We are an exclusive distributor or agent for them in Palma and Balearics, which means we sell and service their yachts in the region. We met at the Düsseldorf Boat Show, they were impressed with our business, saw the synergies and the rest is history.

What is ONE Palma’s sail-making specialty? Cruising sails? Racing sails? Transoceanic sails?
We specialize in beautifully finished, tough and durable transoceanic cruising sails. Having said that, our sails just won the ORC World Championships in Copenhagen, and also won silver and bronze at said event.

I read that an area of great synergy between ONE Palma and McConaghy Boats is technology and innovation—can you tell me about how both companies have embraced technology and innovative ways of doing things?
ONE Palma is in constant evolution through R&D. We were the first to embrace painted UV technology for cruising sails; [we] lead the way in eco-composite production; [we] produce 100-percent recyclable sails with 50-percent less carbon emissions than a Dacron sail, [and we] have been successfully pushing top-down furling cruising-sail technology and methodology to enable superyachts to handle large downwind sails, to give a few examples. Our team is constantly developing new ways of doing things in sailmaking, rigging and composites production and configuration.

McConaghy strives to apply the trickle-down theory in the application of Grand Prix and America's Cup technology and methodology to all their products. They bring Moth [Class] foiling thrills to the masses with the Wasp One design, multihull comfort and speed with the MC catamarans, [which] range from 50 to 90 feet, affordable Grand Prix racing fun with their long list of production raceboats ranging from the Ker 33 to numerous Fast 40-class yachts from the very best and most talented naval architects, [namely] Ker, Carkeek, Farr and Judel Vrolijk.

Neither company rests on their laurels and that brought us together at the Düsseldorf boat show, where the collaborative plan was hatched.