Tracking Upwind in Waves

Have you ever gone over the top of a giant wave, and felt the boat slam down violently as you crossed over it?  It happens all the time in boats of all sizes, and is called hobby-horsing.  No matter how big or small the wave is, not having the ability to prevent your boat from doing this is will slow you down significantly.  The opposite of hobby-horsing is called tracking.  Tracking is the act of keeping your fully in touch with the water at all times, with no bow slamming or vibrations moving through your hull.  The smaller, lighter, and less stable a boat is, the more important tracking through the water is, as these boats will slow down much more quickly than large, heavy, and stable boats.  By keeping your speed up, helm neutral, and using precise steering and/or trimming movements, you can increase your ability to track through the water, and put miles of boat speed on your competition.

Steering & The Boat’s Ideal Path Through a Wave:

Waves are your best friend downwind, and your worst enemy upwind.  Upwind, not only does a wave serve as a roadblock, but is also a strong natural force that pushes your boat sideways.  The more the wave moves toward your boat from the side, the more susceptible your boat is to a sideways slide.  This makes you generally slower, and crushes your ability to point or hold your lane.  However, with the proper technique, this is something you can use the waves as an asset when sailing upwind.

When trying to track effectively through the water, each wave you sail through has an entry phase and an exit phase.  The goal in the entry phase is to minimalize the amount the wave can push you sideways. The goal in the exit phase is to keep the boat from hobby-horsing, and to power up again for the next wave.

Entry Phase

As you are about to enter the face of a wave, you need to steer up, and into the face of the wave.  The amount you steer depends on the size of the wave.  The smaller the wave, the less you turn the boat.  The larger the wave, the more you will turn the boat.  This will align your bow more directly and head-on with the wave in order to punch through it, effectively reducing the amount the wave can push you sideways.  Ultimately, you want to give each wave less direct surface to push sideways.

Exit Phase

When you turn into the face of a wave, you will reduce your speed at the top of it, making you much more susceptible to hobby-horsing.  To correct this, you must turn hard and quickly down the back side of the wave to keep the boat in touch with the water, and to increase your speed before the next wave.  Depending on the wind and waves, you may even want to exaggerate the turn over the wave, steering slightly past a close hauled course.  You should only do this for the most brief instant, and then return to a close hauled course to get ready for the next wave.

Steering:

One of the first racing principles sailors are taught, is that using the rudder is slow.  While this is true, hobby-horsing is much slower than using some tiller to steer through waves.  An alternative to using tiller is changing sail trim during the entry and exit phases.  Some sailors will trim during the entry phase to steer up, and ease during the exit phase to steer down.  In all boats, you will see some combination of steering and trimming to effectively steer through waves.  The exact ratios will depend on the conditions, your relative weight range for those conditions, and the type of boat you are sailing.  As a general rule, steering with the sails is more effective in doublehanded boats, while steering with your tiller is more effective in singlehanded boats.  Again, usually there is a mixture of both.

Neutralizing Your Helm:

Having a neutral helm will make your boat much more receptive to changes in steering or trimming.  Let’s consider a boat’s ideal path through a wave.  There is actually a relatively large amount of steering that is necessary to keep the boat tracking through the water, regardless of your speed and power.  If your boat is heeled to leeward at the top of a wave, giving you weather helm, then you must use a good deal of rudder, or ease the sail significantly, to turn the boat down the backside of a wave.  Thus, keeping a boat flat with a neutral helm, at the top of a wave, is critical to keeping the boat tracking through the water.

Maintaining Your Speed/Power:

Speed and power are essential to tracking through the water.  When you encounter a wave, slowing down, or entering the face of that wave with little speed or power will make it difficult to get over the top without getting pushed sideways, causing your bow to slam down on the other side.  When you move from wave to wave, the goal is to maximize your speed before the wave, use that speed to reach the top of the wave, and then quickly build it up again as you descend and move on to the next wave.  This takes a lot of intense focus and practice to perfect, so go out and start practicing!

See you on the water,

Zim Coach  

Comparing Roll Tacks in the FJ and 420

In the last Zim Coach article, we looked at the basic do’s and don’ts of roll tacking FJ’s and 420’s.  While all the basic principles of great roll tacks remain the same, there are subtle adjustments that the best sailors make, when switching between the two boats, which make a substantial difference.  In both high school and college sailing, you will switch back and forth often between each boat, and it is important to know what adjustments you need to make, as you will not always have time to prepare in each boat before an event.

To understand why the tacks in each boat will differ, it is important to note the differences in the two boats.  The 420 is built relatively wide, and is flat toward the stern.  Both the rudder and centerboard are large and powerful blades that exert a significant amount of force when moving in the water during a roll or flatten.  These factors all lend to greater stability, and demand a great amount of force to effectively roll the boat over.  Tacks take longer in 420’s because there is more boat and blade to roll through the water.  Combining the width of the boat with the size of the blades also gives you a much wider margin of error for rolling and flattening the boat.  In other words, it is much more difficult to over roll, or over flatten.

In contrast, the FJ is relatively narrow, and has a completely rounded on the bottom.  The centerboard is much less relevant, as is the rudder, making the boat much less stable, and much more prone to sliding.  Rolls take much less effort, and occur much faster than rolls in a 420.

What this means for the two boats, is that FJ’s need more finesse during tacks, while 420’s require more force.  This is not to say that timing is not important in the 420, but that you should put more force into it your rolls, as you have a much larger margin of error, and much more to get to the other side and nail your flatten.  Furthermore, it takes more effort, working against the centerboard of the 420, to roll the boat over.  Thus, both timing and force are critical in the roll.

In the FJ, everything is much more subtle.  Putting a significant amount of power behind a roll will roll the boat over too quickly, ending in a lot of poorly executed flattens.  Remember, the flatten is what makes a roll tack fast.  No matter how big the roll is, if the flatten is not executed well, a flat tack would be more effective.  Thus, rolling hard in FJ’s leads to a lot of slow tacks. 

This is not to say that the goal in an FJ tack is not to roll the boat way over.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  The best sailors will typically get the rudder to just pop out of the water for an instant during the peak roll.  However, reaching that point is more about timing than effort.  Except in light air conditions, FJ tacks are typically executed with the skipper and crew both sitting on the rail with shoulders slightly outboard, waiting for the right time to cross.  In the 420, usually skippers in crews get off of their butts, and slam their hips hard into the rail to initiate the roll.  The FJ is so narrow and round, that by using the right technique during your turn (see previous article), the boat and wind will actually do all of the rolling for you.  Remember, if you do not nail your flatten in the FJ, it will actually slow your boat down.  Neither the boards, nor the boat are particularly wide.  Thus, at the peak of the roll, when the boat stalls, the boat will quickly slide sideways if the flatten is not properly executed.  By using less effort to roll the boat, and focusing on timing, you get the same amount of roll out of the boat, but have a much easier time to properly execute a perfect flatten.

Lastly, how the crew crosses the boat differs in the 420 and FJ.  In the 420, the crew crosses facing forward, and the skipper will look to them to coordinate the timing of the roll.  In the FJ, the crew actually sits backwards, watching the skipper to coordinate the roll.  This is done because of the way the crew’s feet cross in the different boats.  In the FJ, by tacking backwards, the crew’s feet fall in the perfect place to lock right into the strap and hike or flatten without hesitation.  This is not true if they tack facing forwards in the FJ. 

This transition is often mental, and hard to figure out at first.  To make the switch, crews should hold the primary jib sheet in their forward hand in FJ’s, and in their aft hand in 420’s.  All rolling and flattening movements are identical once this adjustment is made.  You are just doing it while facing in another direction.

See you on the water,

Zim Coach

Do's and Don'ts for Roll Tacking 420's and FJ's

This time of year, in both college and high school sailing, there is a lot of racing going on.  Sailors will often go through three straight weeks of team racing, only to sail an important fleet race regatta right at the end of it.  There are a lot of things that you won’t have control over, and you will have to make many adjustments on the fly.  You may also do a lot of switching between multiple kinds of boats, such as 420’s and FJ’s, and there is not usually a lot of time to prepare in both types before each event.  Throughout all of the chaos, there is no excuse not to have your basic boat handling skills up to snuff prior to each event.  Having this under control will give you a lot of confidence, one less thing to worry about, and the ability to get out of tough situations that occur on the water.  Today, we will focus on the most basic and important piece of your boat handling: roll tacking.

General:

Perfecting a roll tack is not easy, and has many parts to it.  It requires an understanding of the boat you are sailing, advanced sailing principles, quick footwork/handwork, and precise coordination between the skipper and crew.  However, when perfected, your advantage over other boats is significant.

Rolling at the Right Time:

One of the biggest differences between a good roll tack and a great roll tack is the timing of the roll.  The vast majority of sailors tend to roll a 420 or FJ too early.  Unless it is very windy, rolling the second the jib backwinds is not ideal for effective tacks.  Many sailors get in a crunch, or get really excited, and roll before the boat is ready.  It’s natural to think that the faster you start your roll, the faster the tack is.  However, by rolling too early, you will get less help from the sails to turn the boat, and will actually steer the boat down with your weight while turning up with the tiller.  This creates a lot of friction with the rudder and the water, and you will have to steer much more to turn through the wind, slowing your boat down.  Additionally, backwinding the jib helps the boat turn during a tack significantly.  Thus, the longer you allow the jib to backwind, the less rudder you will have to use to steer through a tack.

As a general rule of thumb, you want to wait till the boat is at or just past head to wind before rolling the boat.  Waiting until this point will allow you to use less rudder, and will also allow you to use the wind to help roll over the boat.  If you go earlier, you will roll the boat against the face of the wind, forcing you to use much more effort to roll the boat over.

There is no exact time to wait before rolling the boat over, and it will change depending on the wind.  For example, in light air, you want to wait a relatively long time before rolling over the boat, as it will take longer for the sails to help you steer through the wind.  If it is really windy, you may want to cross sides quickly, as soon as the jib backwinds.  As soon as both sailors are hiking, you should not roll at all, especially in the FJ.  Instead, you should still use the sails to keep power in the boat the entire time, and simply switch sides and start hiking, when the jib backwinds.

Initiating the Turn:

Another common error by sailors is heeling the boat to leeward to initiate the turn before a roll tack.  This is more effective in a hard chine boat (e.g. Optimist), because the corner will dig into the water, and keep the boat from sliding.  In a soft chine boat (rounded bottom), like a 420 or FJ, the centerboard kicks to windward as the mast heels to leeward, causing the boat to slide sideways and slow down.  Thus, steering the boat by smoothly trimming in the main, as you turn into the wind, is a more effective way to initiate the turn.

Coordinating the Role/Hitting the Rail at the Same Time:

A simple thing you can do to improve your roll tacks is having both the skipper and crew roll and flatten at the same time.  Anyone would agree that the more weight you apply to the windward rail, the easier it is to roll the boat over.  As an example, let’s say both the skipper and crew each weigh 130 lbs.  If the skipper stands on a scale alone, that’s the weight it will read.  Likewise, if the crew gets on the scale after the skipper, it will also say 130 lbs.  However, when both are on the scale at the same time, the scale will read 260 lbs.  The same principles in this example are directly applicable to rolling and flattening a boat.  If you roll or flatten at different times, the rail will feel 130 lbs. on it twice, instead of 260 lbs. at once.

Furthermore, you will increase the weight the rail experiences by getting your butt off the rail, and landing hard on the rail during the roll (both skipper and crew).  If you weigh 130 lbs. on a scale, and you jump up and down on it, the scale will say that you weigh quite a bit more than you do in actuality.  Thus, by having both the skipper and crew roll using this method, AND at the same time, that 260 lb. number can increase exponentially for two 130 lb. sailors.

The Jib:

Keeping the jib full the entire way through the tack is imperative for maintaining speed and power through a tack.  So often you see a crew release the jib sheet too early, leaving a gap between the backwind and the fill on the other side, where the jib luffs.  This disrupts the flow over the sail, and it will take a few additional moments to refill.  This will cause the boat to slow down and slide sideways.

To correct this, at the last moment prior to the jib starting to luff, pull hard on the primary sheet.  This will cause the jib to backwind much faster, and help start turning the boat earlier.  Hold the jib in a backwinded position until you start moving to the other side of the boat.  As you cross, snap the jib in on the other side with the new primary sheet.  If you execute this with a quick motion and correct timing, the jib will pop full without luffing for even the slightest instant.  The trick to this is waiting longer, and maintaining pressure on the clew of the jib with the jib sheets the entire way through the tack.  Thus, when you let go of the primary sheet, all of the slack needs to be out of the new sheet to continue to place tension on the clew.

The Main and the Flatten:

The final piece of a great roll tack (and the most difficult), is the movement of the mainsail following the roll, and through the flatten.  At the moment of the roll, you should have the mainsheet trimmed in as hard as possible.  As you cross sides (at the peak of the roll), you should have your main eased to a beam reach.  You do this to more effectively control the flatten of your boat, and because your apparent wind has shifted back, facing the side of the boat.  If you try to flatten the boat with the sail all the way in, it is extremely difficult and ineffective, as you are flattening against a sail that is full of wind.  By dumping the main, you can generate a much faster and more powerful flatten of the boat.  Also, at the peak of a roll, your boat actually comes to a complete stop for an instant before accelerating.  At this point, your apparent wind moves back, pointing directly at the side of your boat.  If your sail is in all the way at this point, your boat will slide sideways instead of moving forward.

Now, it is not enough to simply ease the sail.  If that is all you do, the boat would flatten really fast, but would not generate much power from the sails movement from a heeled to vertical angle.  A roll tack is fast because of power generated from both the centerboard’s and mainsail’s movement against one another through the water and wind respectively.  Thus, once the boat starts to transition back downward from a peak roll, the mainsail needs to start coming in.  The main should come back to its normal upwind trim at the exact point where the boat is flat again.  This part takes a lot of practice, but is worth it in the end!

Quick reference guide of the Do’s and Don’ts of great roll tacks:

Do:

- Steer with your sails (trim main/backwind jib)
- Keep the boat flat during the turn before the roll
- Roll later (after the jib starts to turn the boat)
- Roll at the same time
- Keep the jib full the entire time
- Ease the sails during the peak of the tack
- Trim the main in again as you flatten
- Straighten the rudder before you flatten

Don’t:

- Steer by healing the boat to leeward before the tack
- Roll too early
- Have the skipper and crew roll at different times
- Let the jib luff at all
- Keep the sails (especially the main) trimmed in while you flatten.
- Flatten with the rudder at an angle

See you on the water,

Zim Coach

Meet David Pritchard, President of Gill North America

Gill North America Website: http://bit.ly/GillNA

Gill North America on Facebook: http://bit.ly/GillNAFB

Zim Sailing/Gill North America Sweepstakes: http://bit.ly/ZimGillSweepstakes 


Could you tell us a little bit about your background and career?

I have spent most of my life around sailboats.  Our family lived in England until I was 10 years old, and I did a lot of racing with my father as a crew during that time.  Most of the racing we did was in a boat called an Albacore.  My fondest childhood memory was Cowes Race Week.  Eventually, my father’s business moved to the USA, and we settled in Glen Cove on Long Island.  We joined the Sea Cliff Yacht Club.  I raced Snipes and Stars with my Dad on weekends, and I joined the junior sailing program over the summers.  I just fell into the sport from that point forward.

When I was 14, I won my first Nationals in the Blue Jay, which caught some people’s attention.  Over the next couple of years, I first won the Neff, and then the Bell Trophy, awarded to the top junior sailor on Long Island.  I had a tremendous crew, Joey Yacho, and a lot of club and family support.  By the time I turned 17, I started racing Fireballs and 470’s, and was gathering an interest in Olympic Racing.  I raced as a 470 crew with Dave Kellogg, and we did the Pre Trials in 1975.  We made the US Sailing Team just before I went off to college at UC Irvine.

UCI had a really good sailing team at the time, and I sailed for them while studying Biomedical Science.  Whenever I wasn’t in school studying or sailing for the school, I was racing with others on the west coast, learning everything that I could.  That was my passion.  I raced a lot of Lidos, won a National’s in the C 15 with Tom Lindsky, and raced J24’s.  I also worked part time for Dave Ullman.  After work, we would go out to Long Beach, train, and look at sail shapes.  This was an excellent opportunity for me to learn from a truly amazing sailor.

At the end of my junior year, I left UCI, and made a push towards the 1980 Olympics with Dave Kellogg in the 470.  We made the US Sailing Team, and trained hard for the trials.  Eventually the plug was pulled on the games, making the trials essentially a non-event.  We finished 4th.

That summer, I went to work as a sales engineer for Lombardi on the west coast.  I covered the 13 western states for the company, and kept racing on weekends.  Deep down inside, I missed the 470 Olympic opportunity in 1980. It left me with what I felt was unfinished business.  So, after three years with a great company, I quit my job, and decided to start campaigning for the 1984 games in Los Angeles.

This is how the business really got started.  I came home in the summer of 1983, from California, to live with my parents on Lake Lanier, near Atlanta, Georgia.  I started a small marine service business “Weathermark “, with my 470 Crew Kenny Watts.  We worked out of my parents’ home.  We sold Ullmans Sails, ISP Sailing Products, and BIC Sailboards.  When we were not away racing the 470, we worked the business.  After sailing for years, I already knew many people in the sailing industry, making it relatively easy to get into the business side of the sport.

Weathermark became a very successful sailboat dealership.  We sold it in the spring of 1999, after a great 15 year run, but that’s another story!

This story is about the genesis of Gill NA.  In the summer 1984, at one of the local yacht clubs, I noticed someone wearing a Douglas Gill one piece product.  In all my years of sailing, I had never seen the brand before.  My father wrote a note to Douglas Gill, based in the UK, to find out more about their business, and to inquire about selling their products.  Gill was very small at the time, just like Weathermark.  Weathermark was centered and focused on the Southeast of the United States, whereas Gill was potentially a national opportunity.  I had a vision, even back then, for the line.  After a trial run in 1985, Nick Gill gave us the national distributor rights in 1986.  So, that’s how it all started with Gill.  Just a chance meeting with someone wearing a Gill product on a boat ramp at a local sailing club!

Why did you elect to sell Weathermark and focus on Gill?

As I mentioned, Weathermark was doing very well.  Weathermark was a thriving business that required a lot of attention, and was also exposed when the lake level dropped too low.  This happened in both 1986 and 1987, and I knew we needed something else to help offset and compensate for low lake level years.  Gill was the answer.   In the early 1990’s, Gill really started to take off.  Nick was spending a lot of time in the US, and we were making a lot of new products to meet the growing needs of the market.  Gill started to double in size every year.

I saw a lot of potential for further growth on the Gill side.  I felt, at the time, that Weathermark had reached its market cap, and that our team had done an excellent job getting there.  However, when the wind shifts, you should tack.  In the retail business, you have to work a lot of weekends.  Transitioning over to Gill NA full time gave me more time to spend with my family, and an opportunity to focus on a growing national brand.  At that time, I had a young family, and while the sale of Weathermark was a great source of capital to fuel the Gill NA side of our business, the ultimate decision was more about family.

Every day, I wake up thankful for that decision and the job that I get to do every day.  I get to follow my heart and passion for the sailing lifestyle.  Ever since 1999, we have never looked back.  Gill NA’s annual compound growth rate has been very strong.  The mantra was “striving to do less better!”

What do you enjoy about working on the apparel side of the sailing industry?

The sailing apparel industry, I find, is a very personal sale.  It’s all about the sailor and the marine customer.  Their passion is life on the water.  They are not sailing in an inanimate piece of equipment.  The clothing speaks to who they are.  Our technical clothing takes on a life of its own, when it is on the customer.  When customers are purchasing technical clothing gear, we are getting into that person’s comfort zone, asking about use and fit, and we get to hear all of their stories in the process.  They invite us in.  Our team at Gill is devoted to helping people, by making their life on the water better!  We are fortunate at Gill NA to have excellent and experienced staff team to help the customer.  Our sales manager Jerry Richards, for example, has raced in two Olympics, an America’s Cup, and many offshore races.  He understands technical clothing, and the value of dressing properly on the water.  We are all about helping the customer make an informed purchase decision.

What will the sailing apparel industry look like in 10 years?

Fabric has changed a lot over the past 10-15 years.  Fabrics are now mostly breathable, and are getting more so every day.  Fabric technology has moved considerably, and I think it is fair to say that it will continue to do so.  Durability will continue to increase, moisture vapor will become more efficient, and I would expect changes in how garments are assembled.  As an example, we may get to the point where seams are glued and no sewing is required.

Product sourcing will, most likely, move closer to home in the United States.  The cost of manufacturing in China is going up, shipping costs are going up, and there is an urgency to cut down on delivery time.  We will possibly see a Dell like manufacturing model for custom clothing.

Fashion trends and colors will remain contemporary and appealing to the time period.  We look at trends and colors as far as 24 months out from a product’s release.

Gill International invests continually in these product development areas ….what I call value creation. Innovation fuels sales.

Gill just became the Official Technical Apparel Sponsor of US Sailing.  What is most exciting to Gill about this relationship with US Sailing?

Our US Sailing sponsor relationship allows Gill NA to connect directly with our ideal customer target audience - a US Sailing member.  It also provides a way to stay connected and give back to the sport.  There are a host of amazing programs and events that Gill is excited to take part in, including certified race instruction, the road tour, US Sailing Championships and an educational component.  Gill has given back and stayed involved with US Sailing from 1996 to 2008 as a Sailing Team sponsor.  After that, we decided to focus on the association side.  That’s where we are today.

Who is your sailing idol?

I’m not big on having idols.  I have a lot of admiration for many different sailors that I have met throughout my career.  Dave Ullman is someone I have a lot of admiration and respect for.  He has continued to keep Ullman Sails thriving for so many years, and he has such a natural ability as a sailor.  He would always give back, and help you get to the next level.  He never seemed secretive, and was always open to helping you get up to speed in a class.  Dave had such a huge impact on my life at an early stage.  Getting to see firsthand, by watching him, what an entrepreneurial business looked like, helped me see that I could work for myself one day. Passion turned into profession.

Another huge influence on my life was Nick Gill, our chairman.  He gave me the benefit of the doubt way back in the day, at age 26, and helped me connect a few very good decisions to get my career jumpstarted.  He is a very humble, servant-leader type.  You would never know he was the chairman unless someone told you that he was.  We’ve known each other for 30 years.

My job allows me to connect with many people in the industry.  Many of the owners and employees of the dealerships we serve are excellent sailors.  I have strived stayed connected with so many other talented racers, cruisers, and pro fishing anglers whom I have great respect for.  I have a lot of respect for all of these individuals.

What kinds of things should a customer look for and consider when purchasing sailing gear?

The most focused time we have with customers is at a boat show.  We like to encourage the customer to try on the product, because it is important to see how the garment fits.  We encourage customers to try other brands on as well, because we think that our fit is a strong selling point.  Gill has a garment technologist who does nothing but work on fit, and refine our patterns to ensure that our fit is consistent across all styles.
The level of features you want is also important.  Gill makes products that go all the way to ocean level criteria.  You will need to look at safety considerations, reflectors, drainage, and pockets.  Look at how a garment is taped.  There is a specific technique for proper taping.  Turn the product inside out, and then compare with the competition.  Look at how the garment is sewn together, and check for exposed stitching.  If the stitching is exposed, it will significantly diminish the life of a garment.

Fabric is important.  Does the fabric breathe?  Are the key wear areas reinforced?  Buyer beware -this is the area were garment design can really be compromised.  Fabric is as much as 50% of the cost of the garment, and it’s an easy place for factory’s to cut cost and greatly reduce the life and performance of the garment.
Lastly, look at a product’s guarantee.  The Gill guarantee offers real peace of mind to our customers.

Tell us about the Zim Sailing/Gill Sweepstakes.  Why did you elect to work with Zim, and how do the two companies fit together?

Zim is an excellent upcoming boat brand, and we have seen the great work you all have done to support junior, high school, and collegiate sailing.  Gill has partnered and offered a number of different giveaways with several companies on the social media platform.  We have given away yacht charters, free gear, boats, boat show tickets, and all sorts of other things.  This contest is about building awareness of the brand by offering a chance for someone to win a brand new Zim Optimist and $1,000 retail value of Gill sailing gear.

What products are you most excited about in this year’s program?

Gill has had a very busy year working on innovation and value.  The market place wants innovation, improved product, and stable costs if possible.  Our new spring 2013 offer includes a fully updated OS2 style that is foundational to our offshore foul weather gear line up.  We have an entire new luggage range and Inshore Lite Foul Weather Gear range.  The newest addition to the color pallet is “bright lime” in dinghy, which is very popular.  Our new coast guard PFD and sunglasses round out the spring 2013 offering.  We have a very broad product line that dealer’s love.

How does Gill go about new product development and research?

On the Gill North America side of the business, we work as an importer and distributor.  We focus on “value delivery”: marketing, sales, customer service, etc.  On the research and development side in the UK they focus on “value creation”.  We are invited by Gill International, based in the UK, a few times a year, to participate and speak to the development process.  This process starts two years in advance of final production products hitting the market.  During this time, the products will go through many design changes to achieve the design brief.  Samples are then made and field tested.  No product is released until it is tested on sailors, and they have a chance to destroy what they are wearing.  If it does not meet the criteria of the original brief, and offer unique and distinct value that make the lives of our customers better, the product is not released.

After a product is out in the market place, we obtain notes and feedback from the people that use it, and incorporate that research into the next generation of products.

In the end, Gill makes a great range of products with an excellent value proposition for consumers in the sailing and boating community.  We are also one of the few brands that offer a comprehensive selection of junior and women’s gear.  I am very proud of the job we do, of our team of dedicated professionals, and what we sell, and we look forward to doing it for many years to come.

David Pritchard