Doyle Sailmakers Australia expanding

by Julie Sharpe on 30 Jun 2006 Fraser Sails started in the 1970’s and the Australian sail making company, in the late 1990’s, developed a major new sail manufacturing technology.

Working with the North American Doyle Sails group, as Doyle Fraser, they marketed D4 Sails for a world market.

Mark Fullerton qualified as a sail maker 19 years ago. In 1992 he won Hobart on IMS on Assassin, to start his career with what was then Fraser Sails. He was heavily involved with the Research and Development program of the D4 membrane and later became the D4 membrane production manager.

‘While we were a major Australian sail making group, from 1997 onwards a major amount of the Doyle Fraser energy and resources were involved in the development of the D4 Sail systems.

‘D4 sails are recognised worldwide for their success in one-design racing, super yacht sailing, performance cruising and Grand Prix racing. Among the most notable successes was the 1-2 finish of Skandia and Zana (Konica Minolta) in the 2003 Sydney-Hobart race.’

In 2004 Dimension-Polyant Sailcloth acquired the D4 Sail Systems production from Fraser Sails in Somersby, Australia whose sail loft operations where then trading as Doyle Fraser Sails and the Doyle Fraser Sails loft continued the sail making business.

Although the manufacturing of D4 is now controlled by Dimension-Polyant, all the sail design, seaming and sail making aspects of each D4 membrane manufactured by Dimension-Polyant for Doyle Sailmakers is the property of Doyle Sailmakers.

Mark Fullerton, Steve Hewitt and John Hearne are now the owner-operators of the Doyle Australia Loft in the Sydney area and the loft is very well respected on the world sailing scene. Their major production facility is at Somersby, on the New South Wales Central Coast, quite near the Dimension Polyant facility. Their main service loft is at Rushcutters Bay, just across the road from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

Mark Fullerton continues; 'Once we split away from the D4 production facility, we were able to focus on our customers and that ability has delivered significant growth.

‘Doyle Sailmakers is committed to maintaining and building on the quality their customers have come to expect and will continue to offer excellent service, affordable pricing and extremely fast and durable sails.

‘The directors are all active, competitive yachtsmen and combined have some 60 years experience in the yachting industry. This experience is complemented by our large, efficient and technologically advanced sail loft and the team that work with us, which includes our highly respected designer Michael Carter.

‘Within the Doyle group, we provide the D4 membrane knowledge base. We often build complete D4 sails for other Doyle lofts around the world. Locally, as our growing client base has seen that we are very client focused, our loft network has grown. Tim Cowen is in Adelaide as Doyle Sailmakers South Australia and Charles Wallis operates Doyle Sailmakers Airlie Beach. Col Anderson from Victoria, Laura Warlow from Brisbane, Will Hammond from Perth, Richard Goodfellow from TAS and Jun Hasegawa from Japan have also joined our group.

‘Sail-Pack sail design software is the choice of all Doyle Lofts. It is a world leader in sail design technology. The new software has enabled us to maintain our level of design as new boats and rules are devised. Technology, as in all industries, is moving at a rapid pace and our R&D is enhanced with the use of Sailpack.

'Recently we have added Aero to our software technology. Aero allows us to virtually sail our designs through a wind tunnel and evaluate speed, shape and versatility. To fully utilise Aero, we need to collaborate with the designer on the yacht design and righting moments. This programme, whilst not run on every boat, is a formidable tool for design and R&D.'

‘With growth continuing strongly we are looking for sailmakers to join our team,’ commented Production Manager Steve Hewitt. 'We are a growing sail making company on the leading edge of technology and therefore have excellent career paths available within our group.'

Mark Fullerton Sales - Manager/Director, Somersby

Mark Fullerton has been in the sail making industry for 19 years. He has been with Doyle Fraser Sails for 12 years. His role has developed from sailmaker to research and development during Doyle Fraser’s D4 development project. Whilst the D4 product has moved onto Dimension Polyant, Mark retains an impressive sailing and sail making record within the business. Mark is currently co-ordinating the grand prix sail programmes. Mark has been a Director of Doyle Fraser Sails since July 2004.

Steve Hewitt - Production Manager/Director, Somersby

Steve Hewitt has over 20 years experience in the sail making industry. Steve is the loft manager at Somersby and was the Doyle Fraser Sails production manager for 10 years. Steve has also worked at both North Sails and Hood Sails. Steve is well up on large and mega yacht sail production and has helped enhance the Doyle Fraser name in the market place. Steve is also handling the quoting to the entire Doyle lofts worldwide.

John Hearne - Sales and Service/Director, Rushcutters Bay

John Hearne has 30 years experience in the sail making industry. He qualified as a sailmaker and has worked for a variety of sailmaker in various capacities. During these years he has seen the evolution of the sail making industry in Australia to where it stands today. Over this time John has been involved in all facets of the trade from sewing, measuring, designing, production managing through to senior management positions in sail lofts. John has been an active sailor over the years with many regatta wins to his credit. He has completed seven Sydney to Hobart races and competed in almost every race on the east coast of Australia a number of times.

Michael Carter - Sail Designer, Somersby

Michael Carter is Doyle Sydney’s head sail designer. He helped established Doyle Fraser on the international scene with his sail design development. Overseas lofts regularly call upon his expertise. Originally employed to work alongside Brad Stephens, Michael has evolved into a world recognised sail designer in his own right. Other Doyle lofts often seek Michael’s designs and he is recognised as part of the Doyle international design team. Michael is a keen sailor and also regularly races an 18ft Skiff on Sydney Harbour.





Doyle Australia Sailmakers:
30 Pile Rd, Somersby
NSW 2250 Australia
Phone: (612) 4340 4766
Fax: (612) 4340 5499

Service Loft:
6 Neild Ave
Rushcutters Bay, Sydney
NSW 2001 Australia
Phone: (612) 9361 4836
Fax: (612) 9332 3271

Full loft details at http://www.doylefraser.com/loftsf.htm