Morning Folks, I’ve just been reviewing last years posts and it seems that we didn’t really post very much at all from May onwards. There were a few reasons for this, the first being the house rebuild which took over a little bit towards our deadline of September, then late October.

I also had my mum and dad to deal with which took even more time than the house build. As you’ll know we lost dad at the end of September after a really rubbish year for him having become ill in the USA whilst on holiday early in 2023. We were heartened by the fact he had 76 years of fantastic life and was only ill for a relatively short period of time before passing. This has left mum on her own and we’ve been making sure she is coping. As it turns out she has much more of a social life than I do and her time is packed full of things to do and people to see.

All of the above served to take much of my focus away from both the boatyard and Soch Sails and both businesses took a bit of a back seat whist making sure we had somewhere to live and making sure mum was ok. Simon continued to make sails for us and has turned into a valuable member of the team for both businesses. Nicko and Pete kept the boatyard running well too and I can’t thank all three of them enough for sticking at it.

So we’re now into 2024 which I’m hoping will be as boring as years come and it is time to turn my attention back to Soch Sails. Our inventory isn’t huge, we struggle to keep stock of popular accessories as we are forever manufacturing and shipping them to our friends at RC Yachts who often have stock of these items if we don’t.

Sails are always made to order which is the way it has always been and will continue to be, manufacturing time depends on our workloads, however we aim to get customer orders of DF sails out of the door within 7 working days. We are often quicker than this, and sometimes a little slower such as after Christmas where we’d had a month off. We have also reintroduced our Stealth sails for DF65 in A plus size only.

Sticker sets, sail numbers and deck patches for all classes are usually manufactured and shipped within one or two working days.

The one thing that I did drop the ball with last year was the RC Laser and the bits that go with it. There aren’t any complex excuses it was just something that I meant to do repeatedly and never got round to. I have now placed an order with our supplier and I am expecting to be restocked with boats and parts by early February.

So that’s about it really, we had a rubbish year last year and now we’ll have a better one where I might get to go sailing more than twice. I’m away to West Lancs YC this weekend to take part in the first two rounds of the UK DF TT series, I’m PRO on Saturday but look forward to some DF95 racing on Sunday. I haven’t entered this year’s DF65 Global Championship which I’m a bit sad about but having futtered along at the back of the DF95 fleet at last year’s Globals I don’t feel that I’m really in a position to go and compete properly. It also seems to be a very Swedish heavy event with other nations not being very well represented for one reason or another. so I’ll concentrate on remembering how to radio sail and race for this year as there is plenty to go at with the classes I sail.

As ever, the shop is open 247 to take your order, we are working 4 day weeks as it is the winter and the workshop is open Monday – Thursday. Thanks for your continued support over the last 12 months, your messages have meant a lot to us.

Meantime here are some pictures of sails we have manufactured and shipped recently.