North Sails Hamilton Island loft great success

by Bob Maxwell/Susan Veal on 1 Sep 2008 On Friday the 15th of August, the North Sails Sydney team loaded up a trailer full of sewing machines, sail repair cloth and service materials to send north to Hamilton Island’s Endeavour Room as the temporary sail repair centre during the 2008 Hamilton Island race week.

Rob Woodman from the Sydney North Sails loft supervised the sail repair service centre from Saturday 23rd August to the evening of Friday 29th August with support from sail makers from the Brisbane and Melbourne North Sails loft.

North Sails had a convenient drop off and pick up service, located next to the Toucan Tango Restaurant.

Woodman commented ‘On Sunday evening, after the fairly breezy day, the repair centre quickly filled with more than 50 sails and 12 sail makers from North Sails. Staff, including Alby Pratt and Richie Allanson who have long ago put down their tools and have moved into administration and management roles with the company, were in there helping all the sail makers get the job done.

'There was the full complement of sail makers until after 11pm, then a few of us plugged onto 4:30am to get all the work done.

'We set up to service our customers as we have so many sailing in the Whitsundays, especially amongst the top end boats, and we needed to provided them the service in case of any problems. As it turned out, we found that our North Sails client’s sails held up very well and saw lots of sails from other lofts. Additionally we saw a lot of cruising sailors. In total there were around 140 repairs.

'We learnt a number of things, which will allow us to do even a better job next year. The logistics are huge; the guys driving back won’t arrive until much later in the week.

'We were pleased with the praise and feedback and the many phone calls of ‘thanks for your help that allowed us to continue enjoying the regatta'.'

You can expect to see the North Sails Service Loft at Hamilton Island in 2009.