UK and Halsey-Lidgard Sailmakers Merge

by UK-Halsey Sailmakers / Sail-World Asia on 15 May 2005 The merger of two of the premier sail brands has formed one of, if not the, most comprehensive sailmaking organization in the world.

UK Sailmakers and Halsey-Lidgard Sailmakers jointly announce the formation of UK-Halsey Sailmakers, an organization with 51 lofts and service centers in 20 countries and an extraordinarily versatile and experienced staff.

Although this ranks UK-Halsey as one of the largest sailmaking operations in the world, the purpose of this merger was to share each company’s unique and complementary expertise, giving customers the advantages of both, and broadening service coverage around the world.

UK-Halsey unites two very successful sailmakers, each known for quality and performance in different segments and territories within the sailing community.

UK Sailmakers, based in City Island, New York, where the combined operation will be headquartered, is known as a leader in loadpath laminate construction, having pioneered Tape-Drive sails and, more recently, introduced UK Ultra grand prix sails; UK dominates PHRF and club racing among production and semi-custom racer-cruisers in North America and through the grand prix levels in Europe.

Halsey-Lidgard brings to UK-Halsey an engineering expertise which has produced sails for such yachts as PLAYSTATION (now CHEYENNE), record-holder under Steve Fossett for sailing around the world, and REBECCA, one among dozens of vessels over 100 feet flying Halsey-Lidgard sails.

In addition to many winners in Sydney-Hobart and other top-level Australian and New Zealand races through the years, this company has an outstanding reputation in multihulls, ranging from cruisers in the Caribbean to RTW racers.

In making the announcement, Charles R. 'Butch' Ulmer, President and founder of UK Sailmakers, stated, 'This was a perfect fit for both companies: we each brought enormously valuable assets that our partner needed. Our merger will allow current customers of our lofts as well as new clients to receive more outstanding sail products, racing support and engineering expertise with improved coverage around the world.'

Andy Halsey, President and owner of Halsey-Lidgard, added, 'UK with its leadership in string sails (loadpath laminates) is strong in production monohulls while we’ve really been in much larger yachts and multihulls. But both companies have lofts where the customer deals with truly knowledgeable sailmaking professionals.'

Both men acknowledged the importance of UK’s leadership in laminated loadpath sails. Under the merger, all the lofts in UK-Halsey will be able to deliver these state-of-the-art sails, which are manufactured in a dedicated facility in Bridgeport (Connecticut, USA) for export to UK-Halsey lofts around the world.

And the vaunted Halsey big-boat engineering will allow all the lofts to better address the technical complexity of both mega-yacht and super-yacht rigs.

Ulmer will remain as President in the new organization. An outstanding sailor and spokesman for the sport, he brings strong management skills to the group. He is past Commodore of The Storm Trysail Club, former Trustee and Race Committee Chairman of the Larchmont YC, Senior Member of the New York YC, and a member of the Cruising Club of America as well as the US Naval Academy Sailing Squadron.

Andy Halsey becomes Chief Sailmaker, whose role is to ensure that all lofts in the expanded organization use the latest engineering and sail designs, that lofts share information effectively to advance the entire group’s services to customers and that his mega-yacht and ultra high-speed boat expertise is made available throughout the company.

At the same time, the UK-Halsey loft in Hong Kong announces the appointment of Barry Hayes as their new Sales and Service Manager. Barry can be contacted on 2775-7711 or 9094-9523.

For more information : www.ukhalsey.com