Choosing your sail loft (new sails, repairs, rigging)

A new sail is something you rarely buy, a repair is often decided in a hurry, and the standing rigging holds the mast up: three good reasons to choose your sail loft carefully. A good loft starts from your boat and your sailing programme, not from a catalogue; it says clearly what it makes, what it repairs and what it guarantees. This guide gives the criteria, the questions to ask, how to read a quote and the warning signs, without recommending any name or any sailcloth.

1. What a sail loft does (and does not do)

• New sails: mainsail, genoa, jib, staysail, spinnaker or downwind sail, made to measure for your boat — see the cost of a set of sails.
• Repairs: seams, tears, reinforcements, eyelets, bolt ropes, batten pockets, the UV strip of a furling sail, recutting a tired sail.
• Winter care: washing, a full inspection and storing the sails while the boat is laid up — see the guide on winterising and recommissioning.
• Rigging, for many lofts: the standing rigging (shrouds, forestay, backstay, turnbuckles), the running rigging (halyards, sheets), the genoa furler, tuning the mast. Some hand this over to a specialist rigger.
• Covers and sprayhoods, sometimes — this is often a different workshop, the canvas maker.

What it does not always do: repairing the mast itself (extrusion, welding, mast foot), the electronics and lighting at the masthead, deck hardware and winches. And a loft that sells new sails is not a neutral judge of the condition of your old ones: a second opinion costs nothing to ask for.

2. The right criteria for choosing

• Speciality. Cruising or racing sails, monohull or multihull, a conventional, fully battened or in-mast furling mainsail: ask for examples of sails made for boats comparable to yours.
• Measurements taken on the boat. A made-to-measure sail is best built from measurements taken on board, with the mast in place, not just from a plan. If the loft works from the builder’s dimensions, it should say so.
• Advice. A serious loft asks about your programme (coastal sailing, offshore cruising, short-handed crew) before suggesting a cloth and a cut, and explains its choices.
• Training. The trade is learnt mostly in the workshop; no diploma is required to practise it. How long the loft has existed and what it has made say more.
• An identifiable business (SIRET number, Kbis extract or entry in the national business register, which can be checked free of charge in the official business directory) and professional liability insurance, especially for rigging work.
• Proximity. A workshop close to your harbour makes measuring, fitting the new sail, adjustments and in-season repairs easier.
• Lead times. Ordering in winter leaves time to make and try the sail; at the height of the season, repairs take priority.
• Warranties on manufacture and on stitching, how long they last and their conditions (normal use, storage, exposure to the sun).

3. The questions to ask

• Do you come and take the measurements on board?
• What cloth and what cut do you recommend for my programme, and why?
• Where is the sail made: in your workshop, or elsewhere?
• Do you fit the sail and tune it on the boat? Are adjustments after the first outings included?
• What warranty, and on what conditions?
• For a repair: can you look at the sail and give me a quote before starting? Is the repair still worth it?
• For the rigging: do you go up the mast? Will you give me a report with photos?
• What will the delivery date or completion date be?

4. Reading a quote

For a new sail, the quote should let you compare two lofts like for like:

• The dimensions or area, the type of sail and the boat it is intended for.
• The cloth (type, weight), the cut, the reinforcements, the number of battens and reef points.
• The fittings: UV strip (material, colour), slides, telltales, bag or cover.
• Measuring, delivery, fitting and tuning: included or not.
• The amounts before tax, the VAT, the total, the deposit, the lead time, the warranty, how long the quote is valid.

For rigging, each wire should be listed with its diameter, material and end fittings; the quote states whether the turnbuckles and pins are replaced, and whether unstepping, the crane and tuning the mast are included. For a repair, one line per item of damage.

Warning signs: “a set of sails” with no specification at all, a cloth not identified by its type and weight, no written warranty, a vague lead time, a rigging quote that does not say what is being replaced.

5. The signs that should make you walk away

• You are pushed to replace the whole set of sails when a repair would do, without being shown why.
• The rigging is declared “fine” without anyone going up the mast or looking closely at the swaged terminals.
• A written quote is refused, or an impossible date is promised to win the order.
• The old rigging parts are not returned to you, and no invoice says what was fitted.
• No insurance can be shown before working on the mast.

A single sign does not condemn a professional; several together should send you looking elsewhere.

6. Finding a pro near your harbour

The Hullteam map of pros shows, trade by trade, where marine professionals are located: tick the trade you are interested in and move the map to your harbour. Each trade also has its own page, area by area, with each professional’s listing — all of them are gathered on the all trades page. A listing marked “Registered on Hullteam” shows a professional who has opened a Hullteam account.

7. Keeping a record of the work

Record every new sail, every repair and every rigging replacement in the Hullteam log, with the date, the loft and a photo of the invoice. The age of the standing rigging and of the sails are among a buyer’s first questions, and some insurers ask how old the rigging is: a detailed invoice in the boat’s name, stating what was replaced, counts as proof at resale. The guide on which proofs count explains why.