A Q&A with Vince Brun (Part 2)

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 19 Feb 2016 Years ago, sail making was an art form, not a science-driven process. Sail makers would rely on their eyes, their senses, and their understanding of sailing’s physics to try and craft better, faster sails, but fabrics were cut by hand-not by machine-and all sewing was also done by hand, so the results were never even close to a molded laminate sail. Just ask Vince Brun, who has spent the last 38 years working for North Sails in various roles, including his newly named position as Director of Offshore One Design (a role that was previously titled Class Sail Development), in addition to his 40-plus years as an active and highly competitive One Design and America’s Cup sailor.

Interestingly, Brun’s career at North perfectly paralleled sail making’s matriculation from art to science, as Dacron cloth gave way to cutting-edge products such as North’s latest 3Di technology. I recently caught up with Brun to learn more about his new role, his sailing experiences, and his perspective on how sail making has changed during his tenure. (This is part two of two-part interview with Brun; Part 1 can be accessed here.)

In which aspects of sail making do you think that the Offshore OD group can realize the most technical advancements over, say, the next 5-10 years? Materials?
The 3Di process is still relatively new, and we at North Sails are still learning. We’ve seen great results, but we’re still just scratching the surface with all the things that can be done to make the sails even better than what we’ve already done. How do you make a sail that’s fast in 0-5 knots and 20-25 knots? How do you make a sail that can cover the whole wind range? It’s a well-known fact that 3Di sails can be used in a much wider wind range than any previous sails….but the sail’s wind range will most likely get even wider. As a sailor, you really can’t rely on the wind speed to be the same during an all-week regatta, and most One Design classes have sail-inventory limitations. I firmly believe that there’s more to come from this new sail technology that will produce sails that will perform well in light-to-heavy air, therefore [reducing the number of required sails in a raceboat’s inventory].

Of all the classes that you’re now working with in your new role, which one presents the biggest technical challenges and why?
There’s a misconception that sail makers don’t focus on developing sails for smaller boats because they’re worrying about the larger yachts. North Sails started over 50 years ago, mainly producing Star and other small-boat sails, and today this is still one of the most important parts of our business. All of the classes that we’re involved are equally important to us. I believe that [North Sails] can address all the classes with the same intensity of the Grand Prix classes. You’ve got to do 100-percent or you shouldn’t touch [a One Design class]. Anything less is disappointing.

Within this sail making environment, it’s a natural that when we learn things from one class, that we transfer that [knowledge] to other classes. There’s definitely a trickle-down, just like with the America’s Cup and other high-level efforts, to ultimately help deliver better sail making technology to other classes, and to other aspects of sailing. It’s important that every time we test and develop sails for a particular class that we pay attention to the lessons learned, and to hopefully use them on other type of boats.

As a sail maker, does a boat like the M-32 present different challenges than, say, a J/105? If so, can you explain?
You can’t be an expert on every class. At North Sails, we have a class expert or leader [on North Sails’ sail making team], and we [assign] a member of the Offshore One Design group to manage and sail each of those classes. Take the J/111—I’ve personally never sailed one, but we have a team of experts that have years of experience on the boat, and who know the class’ rules, the boat’s idiosyncrasies and its tuning requirements. This allows us to supply the customer with great sails and great service.

Where do you build most of the Offshore One Design sails?
We have several production plants around the world but only two that build 3Di sails, Nevada and Sri Lanka, and the later of the two facilities is a state-of-the-art operation and our biggest production facility. It’s where we produce most of our sails. Almost all of our One Design sails are currently produced there, which ensures a consistent product and a quality level that isn’t achievable anywhere else. Having a well-built product makes all the difference in the world.

Do the different North lofts specialize in sails for certain classes? For example, Australia seemed to be an Etchells specialist for quite a while.
Australia is a good example. Sometimes different sail lofts buy sails from the Sri Lanka plant and build customized development sails. At North Sails, we encourage sailmaing creativity—if it works well, we will implement the design and start production in our Sri Lanka plant immediately after the product has been tested on the water. Ideas can come from anywhere in the North Sails’ world, and this is one of the company’s great strengths.

Anything else that you’d like to add, for the record?
I have been lucky to have spent most of my sail making career as part of the North Sails group, mostly involved with the One Design business.
During this tenure, I had the opportunity to work and sail with great people like Lowell North and many others that greatly influenced my life and career. I’m honored to be asked to stay a little longer at North Sails. I love interacting with customers, developing new sails, and sailing in general. I’m really lucky. [Editor’s note: Brun is now 68 years young.] People might wonder ‘why are you doing this? Does your wife want you out of the house?’ No! I have a really good family! I’m doing this because I love making and developing world-class sails.

If you missed part one click here to read!

May the four winds blow you safely home,