So the new Production Facility and admin centre isn’t quite as grand as the new North Sails place down in Gosport but it is proving to be a useful area to work in.

We are off sailing again tomorrow until Tuesday, this time a trip to The Netherlands for some DF65 racing on Saturday and some  Micro Magic racing on Sunday. Looks like a breezy weekend and the ferry crossing from Hull to Rotterdam could be interesting but I’m sure we’ll have a giggle with some old friends and new ones too.

This means that any orders placed in the shop will not be dealt with until we return on Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

I have to confess that on Sunday I had to finally give in and I wore trousers to go sailing. It was blowing 45knts plus with some stingy needle rain too. When I put the boat in the pictures together for an event earlier in the year it wouldn’t steer properly and I haven’t had time to look at it since. I’m off to The Netherlands this weekend to do some racing and fancied using Pinky again so took a look at the problem which was an easy fix in the end, always good news!

Pinky in a blow

Having put some old sails on a new rig and having not tried Pinky in any sort of weather, I wanted to make sure that the whole lot worked and the boat was watertight. So off to the marina at low tide for some fun. I managed around an hour before bits of me started going numb and it got dark but in that time I gave the boat and rig some abuse that it wouldn’t usually get with gusts of 50knts plus.

Pinky the submarine!

Having returned home and washed the salt off the boat and put the rig to dry I opened up the battery patch to find that the kitchen towel I had put in the boat was completely dry, not bad considering the extreme test that it had just been through.

So it’s been a year now since we started playing around with some bits of drafting film and in that time we have gone from working on the kitchen table, (fun but interesting at mealtimes), to working in the conservatory where we have been producing DF65 sails and other cool bits and bobs for DF65’s since April.

Recently we opened our online shop which is proving to be very popular with customers old and new from all over the globe and we have found ourselves needing a bit more space to produce sails for DF65’s and other classes too as well as more space to run the admin side of both Soch Sails and our Boatyard business.

When we moved into our current house more than four years ago we were lucky enough to have a one bedroom chalet in the back garden.  It was somewhat run down and we have re roofed it for the coming winter and given the interior a lick of paint and a new carpet and hey presto we now have a new production facility and admin centre. A super swish title but Phobe prefers to call it Daddy’s Treehouse!

Rather than trying to build sails and do admin in the same space we now have two separate rooms. The production room has a good sized table that will allow us to work smarter and conduct some R&D on sails for other classes over the winter months whilst still allowing us to produce and expand our range of DF65 bits and bobs.

Room with a brew……

So, as ever, if you need anything for your DF65 or RC Laser please get in touch and we’ll get you sorted.

So it’s now nearly Friday again and I’ve almost recovered from what can only be described as the most amusing and social regatta that I have attended, period.

Holibobs time!

From arriving at Heathrow at 5am last Thursday to arriving home on Tuesday I’m not sure that I stopped laughing the whole time. Four GBR skippers made the trip out to Dallas, myself, Ken Binks, Nigel Brown and DF65 designer Mark Dicks, we were met at the airport in Dallas by Regatta organiser Chuck LaMahieu who acted as our driver and guide for the weekend.  He had a lot on his shoulders going into the weekend with the weather being anything but nice to him the whole time and some of his race team pulling out at the last minute.

Practice Race

Friday practice was fun with the wind giving skippers a chance to try out all three rigs in the great conditions off the CYC jetties. Some food and drink later and Saturday morning rolled around and after the overnight rain the lake had risen by around 2 feet from Friday meaning that racing was postponed until midday. Even with the delay we got 7 races in which saw all the GBR skippers taking a bullet and we ended the day with Mark in 2nd, Tim & Nigel in 8th and 9th and Ken in an unusual 11th after a somewhat frustrating afternoon.

Soggy foot Saturday

More social and banter on Saturday evening along with some great raffle prize giveaways (including some Soch Sails items!) gave way to Sunday. The wind had decided to become lighter and less reliable than Saturday which caused some problems for me as I bounced between A and B fleets to finish the regatta in 13th of 34 skippers, which I was quite pleased with. Ken finished in 14th, Nigel in 11th and Mark won a trophy for finishing 3rd having sailed a really consistent regatta.

Congratulations to Brig North who won the regatta and also to Mark Golison who placed second in his first DF65 event.

Team GBR plus Chuck

A long way to go for some less than spectacular conditions but if I was invited to the location again, I’d be there in a flash, it seems that we were just unlucky with the weather……no one’s fault just the luck of the draw. The local skippers were an awesome bunch who had travelled from all over the USA and it was a great pleasure to meet so many of them, talk with them, sail with them and share a drink or two with them.

A pretty stoked Alex with his new boat

At the end of the regatta I gave my boat and rigs away to a newcomer who had shown promise over the weekend with a badly built borrowed boat. Alex will do well with the boat and has already encouraged 4 new skippers to join the Dallas fleet.

Well done to Chuck for keeping he thing on track when it could easily have fallen off. You deserve a medal, not only for the regatta and hospitality but also looking after team GBR, especially me!

It has taken a day or two to catch up with the admin but we will be cracking on with some sail making tomorrow and should be bang up to date by Monday.

Tuesday 13.16, I now have a boat and some sails for this weekends US DF65 Nationals.  We’ve pimped a hull that we know works made some new sails, done a bit of rig maintenance and rigged the boat.

Boat – Check

Sails – Check

It all looks pretty sharp and is ready for some testing on practice day, Friday after a lie in at the hotel and a leisurely breakfast I hope. Anyhow we will not be posting out any more orders now until next Tuesday or Wednesday.

In the meantime here’s a picture of the whole outfit ready for the water.

Ready for action!

 

So here we are, Friday evening, 22.30 and we’ve just completed the days work which has included 6 suits of DF sails, some hull and deck stickers and a heap of other cool stuff for DF65’s.  We reached a point the other day where we needed a bag to transport the orders to the post office which is the first time we’ve been so productive!

Orders Away!

We have a couple of boats to finish for an overseas customer over the weekend and then we can turn our attention to our trip away to the US DF65 Nationals over in Dallas. I’ll need a boat some sails and a colour scheme, I’m sure there are plenty of cool ideas out there but I’m going for something a bit patriotic I think, not too much of a clue but……..

UK / USA patriotism at its finest!

Not sure about the hull yet, I have both black and white boats available and lots of vinyl but I think I might keep it simple this time, who knows.

With the impending trip away the shop will still take your order but please do not expect any products to be shipped after Tuesday 27th October and again before Tuesday 3rd November. The confirmation email you get when you place your order will tell you the same.

Happy sailing!

Evening!

We’ve been bowled over by the success of our online shop, gobsmacked that so many people from so many places want to buy cool stuff for their DF65’s and RC Lasers from us. We’ve been beavering away in the shed and since our last post here we’ve shipped sails, stickers and other goodies all over the world.

Here is a suit of sails we shipped to Denmark the other day.

As well as dealing with the day to day Soch Sails orders its that time of year when our other business, a full size boatyard for those of you who don’t know!, gets busy with winter servicing and undercover storage so we’ve been dealing with that too, although we’ve got a great team down there!

As well as this we’ve also slowly been adding more products and categories to the online shop and getting a little sleep here and there. As if this wasn’t enough to be getting on with we’ve been doing some product development, our sailbags need a little more work before we launch them to the world but we are pretty pleased with our boat and keel socks which we will add to the shop when we get a moment and our panelled RG65 sails are currently being tested at our local test location, more on that soon enough!

More cool stuff that will appear in the shop soon enough!

In other news I haven’t sailed much recently but am starting to get excited about the US DF65 Nationals at the end of this month. Team GBR now numbers 4 with myself, Mark Dicks, Ken Binks and the late addition of Nigel Brown which will ensure that there is plenty of talent representing GBR. I’m assured by the organisers that they are ready for us, I’m not so sure but it’s going to be a blast.

Current lead time on sails is around a week or less, deck stickers are running a 24 hour turnround time and other parts are usually in stock for same day shipping when ordered before lunchtime.

If there are any other cool products that you think we should be offering then please let us know!

An odd week last week with some steady orders keeping us busy along with a couple of details that needed some attention at the boatyard meant that I didn’t travel to Datchet for the IOM ranking event over the weekend, instead I chose to pop up the road to West Lancs YC for a ND Laser event which was attended by 15 skippers. A mix of B and A rig conditions saw some good racing through the fleet and I was pleased to finish the day a creditable 3rd.

A return to work on Monday with a steady stream of orders keeping us busy again. Perhaps a camping trip later in the week, who knows!

If you need anything, just let us know!

So a super early dart on Friday morning didn’t quite turn out as planned when just 10 miles from my destination the M25 ground to a halt and I sat in the same place for nearly 4 hours!  Hey ho, destination reached eventually, camp made and a beer or two had before getting up on Saturday morning to a very light breeze.

Breakfasted and ready for the off with an A rig set the day didn’t get off to the best of starts with my lack of stick time letting me down. After lunch however I reset the rig completely and found the sweet spot and scored no less than four second places during the afternoon session which found me sitting 5th overnight.

Some good social after the sailing took us through Sunday morning when the wind had made a 90 degree shift and increased in strength but wasn’t anything to bother the A rig until mid morning when a few people changed down to the B rig and were promptly followed by the rest of the fleet and that was the way it stayed for the rest of the day as the breeze continued to build. I carried on where I’d left off on Saturday and scored a few more solid finishes along with a few not so solid ones!

At the end of play I’d climbed a place during Sunday and finished the event in 4th place behind local skippers Jamie Blair and Adrian Tomlinson with Dave Fowler taking the top spot. A reasonable result considering how little time I’ve had with the boat this year.

It’s always nice to hear from our customers on how they are enjoying their purchases from us here at Soch Sails. We got a photo this morning from a customer based in Switzerland who placed an order with us a week or so ago. Nice looking sails!

SUI 001 on Lac Leman, Switzerland

We also had a photo from a more local customer in Derby who bought a hull & deck sticker set for his boat this week.  Having spent much time drinking tea and reading the instructions he’s made a grand job of sticking them on.

Good work Simon!