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Can You Buy Quality Sails Online Our Experience and Results Technical Sailing Videos
Feb 8, 2024
This Technical Tuesday we go through our process of buying our sails online. Hope you find it useful!
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//Creative Commons Attribution Licence video (Reuse allowed)
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0:00
I want to talk to you about my old sale maker
0:20
Now, the way it used to work when I was living on the East Coast of England is that if I wanted new sales, I would contact Alan and Alan would come down on his bike or his van
0:29
with a pencil and a tape measure and we'd sit and have tea and we'd eat biscuits and we'd talk about
0:34
sales and he'd design a cell for me and then he'd go away and then a certain time later and this time
0:42
could be anything from eight weeks to 12 weeks a sale would turn up normally after a few phone
0:46
calls saying where's my sale you know and then a couple of weeks after that you'd say oh can you pay me
0:50
and I'd pay him and that's the way it used to be done so when we left the UK we had to look to an
0:59
alternative way of getting sales made for us. And we look to the internet
1:04
Now, there are huge numbers of providers on the internet. There's the big sale lofts that charge a lot of money for their sales
1:11
And then there are smaller sale lofts that charge substantially less for their sales
1:17
But in many cases, the material's the same. It's branded material. So we're looking to, well, what are the problems here
1:25
Why are these sales so cheap? Is the designer not up to much
1:28
You know, are we going to have problems with a language barrier? Are we going to end up getting something that doesn't fit the boat
1:35
So I'm a little bit skeptical. We were a little bit skeptical. And if you saw our last video, we looked and we did sale measurements for our new set of sales
1:45
And this is the process of getting those sales to us. Did it work
1:50
Are we going to get sales that didn't fit? Are we going to get a good designer
1:54
Are we going to get a good quality sale at the end of it? watch on see what you think
1:59
the next day. The next stage in the process for us
2:11
was a design consultation with a sailmaker while we were in Australia
2:15
10,000 miles away from our boat. Weird. I just want to make sure it's still fur link
2:22
All I did talk to your previous your snapping, what's his name, Andreas? Is it something where is it
2:26
that webbing loop is wearing out at all. It's heat on the head sale
2:31
Yep. Just a match. Just a match. But with the head sale, I don't want to add
2:38
having too stiff at the tack in the head because the aspect ratio
2:42
Yeah. And with this internet conversation all wrapped up, the sailmaker gets on with making the sales
2:47
We head back to the boat to start our season. Then a few weeks later we get notification that the sales are being made They shipped from China all the way to the sail loft in Canada to be inspected then DHL to us in Spain My worry here was that the sales would get delayed lost or
3:03
held up somewhere. However, all in all from door to door was a week. We got notifications at every
3:08
step of the way. Excellent news. So it looks like our sales have finally arrived. I just got a message
3:14
from DHL. So we have about 5,000 kilos of sale clock. to drag back to the boat which is about 400 meters and there's only one way I can do this
3:26
which is using the magic of this so let me just get my magical electric board it's not
3:33
magical it's just electric it's magic magical witchcraft all right it's just technology one is
3:39
off I'm going to get a zip up there quickly because it closes in 15 minutes and then I can drag
3:43
hopefully drag all this back all right off I go all right I'll follow you up in a second
3:52
which is that our sales apparently have just arrived and we just got an email from the marina office
3:58
saying that we have two parcels that are there waiting for us to be picked up
4:02
assuming that they're the sales we have nothing else arriving I don't think
4:06
so the office is closing in literally five minutes so Nick's rushed up there
4:11
before they're closed for the afternoon and I'm going to follow him up
4:15
and hopefully we'll be getting back on the boat with our new sales
4:19
Very very exciting. I'm excited. We don't have a reason To pretend
4:31
I surrender To another seas I don't need a reason
4:45
I'll tell you what, that boosted board is worth the money just for transport purposes really
4:51
I'm extremely excited. This is the first
5:11
This is the first new set of sales that I've ever had. That's my girl
5:17
It's like the boat's birthday. I'm a little bit excited about this
5:23
So our new sales have arrived. Sorry, there's a Spanish celebration. It sounds like gunshots going off
5:28
It's just fireworks. It's just the Spanish. Just Spanish. So our new sales have arrived
5:32
After, realistically speaking, they were stopped in customs for a couple of days
5:37
but that's just European customs. But really, from door to door one week
5:41
I'm pretty impressed with that. Yeah. So they went Canada, Canada to, I think they meant Canada to Ohio
5:46
They went from Ohio to Germany Germany to Germany to majority Madrid Madrid to Valencia in a week They done more than we have Anyway so yeah our new sales these I we super excited Because cut one new sales make boat go faster
6:02
Number two, they are really good quality sales. Number three, new stuff
6:06
Yeah, boxes. So, scissors, carefully open boxes. Yes, let's not cut through our brand new sales
6:13
Yes, yeah. They email them and say, listen, there's a small problem with those sales
6:17
We accidentally cut home. So let's do some unboxing. Now that is a sexy sail
6:58
That's a beautiful looking sail even from this position. And they matched the sacrificial strip
7:09
to our existing canvas, which is pretty nice to that actually. I know it's 39 and she took all the cash
7:17
I know it hurts. Laying on your desk bed and can't wipe your ass
7:24
I know it hurts so bad. Let it go. Let it go
7:31
If you don't, you know your heart will break. Let it go
7:36
Let it go. If you don't, you know your heart will rain
7:42
Be a better. We will never let you go Can't take any more I'm under control
8:03
We won't find all the time will punch you if you're feeling right
8:07
It will go on as long as we want That's the easy part done
8:15
And now we have to do the main My concerns for the main sale
8:24
Or whether it would be compatible with our current seldom baton car system We were moving from partial batons to full batons
8:30
And although the sale design included webbing loops Which should have been compatible with our system
8:34
There was a question as to whether or not they'd have to be modified and sewn onto the cars
8:38
as it was they all fitted super simply and we had all nine cars fitted in under 20 minutes
8:45
I don know what I can do
9:00
Haven't slept for a week or two. Ain't it all is breaking down on me
9:13
I pray for you to sleep for me. I don't know if I can do this on my own
9:26
Because it feels like I'm losing my mind. Better and then, just give you
9:37
Well, that's the process of getting sales. All I would say is that it was remarkably simple
9:42
We have absolutely no problems. Those sales turned up. nine days from door to door and information at every single step. I think we had 26 updates from
9:53
DHS telling us at every stage where they were. In addition to this, something that I struggled with
9:59
when I owned a business was not understanding where the product was and not having a contact
10:05
In this case, we actually had a woman from DHO in Spain contact us and say
10:11
look, your sales are in customs. They will be held up for 48 hours for checks
10:15
and then they will be released. And she replied to the emails. So the first problem I had, the first question I had was
10:24
are these sales going to get to us? Yes, they did. Secondly, is the design going to live up to the consultation
10:30
Yes, it did. They fitted perfectly. Thirdly, are they as well made as other sales
10:36
Well, yes, it's contender CDX. It's a brand material. You can get to any major sail loft anywhere and get the same material
10:43
I can check the stitching. I've checked these sales backwards. they're absolutely perfect
10:47
They have included every single design feature that I wanted, foam luff inserts
10:53
I wanted a special clue board, I wanted spectral leech lines, I wanted camber stripes
10:58
so that I could actually observe the changing camera of the sale. All these things were included
11:03
and I think I paid less than half the price of going to a major sail loft
11:08
So all in all, this was a success. So thank you to Ron at Precision Sales
11:13
thank you to Dowlett Precision Sales, and thank you to the the designer Andreas who contacted me throughout the process to get all this consultation done
11:20
In addition to that, because they're a fairly cool so often, we have thanked them for doing this for us
11:25
If you check down below, there is a discount code for anyone that wants to buy sales through them as well at the moment
11:31
just specifically related to us. Hope you like this. Obviously, we will test these sales through the season, and we're going to do a couple of tutorials on sale trim
11:39
So I hope you follow those. Aside from that, we'll be back next week with another blog. Feel free to subscribe
11:43
and we'll continue our season. So goodbye
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