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 Sail Repair and Marine Canvas Design

Aye of the Hurricane Sail Loft is now mobile, sailing the Seven Seas, on a Voyage of Adventure

Use Contact Page to Inquire About Services

NW School of Wooden Boat Building
Sailmaker Program 2011
Port Hadlock, WA

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After an early retirement from corporate life, a new chapter began with a RV, and a move to Washington state. We settled on Marrowstone Island in Puget Sound and started classes at the Northwest School of Wooden Boat Building, in Port Hadlock, WA.

Classes began in January 2011, five days a week, eight hours a day.

Topics covered basic sails, design, rigging, hand sewing, machine sewing, splicing and braiding of lines, splicing of rigging, along with guest lecturers Carol Hasse, Brion Toss, Kit Africa, Sandy Goodall Wayne and Nahja Chementi, and others.
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After graduation, I spent two months working for Puget Sound Sails in Everett, WA making sails. Then spent six months working in the boat shop at the Northwest Maritime Center learning about repair of wooden boats, helped with sail inventories, and building a custom boogie board out of recycled redwood.

Aye of the Hurricane Sail Loft

White Bear Lake, MN

Established in April 2012, Aye of the Hurricane Sail Loft began by repairing covers for boats. We specialize in custom marine canvas covers for sailboats A wind scoop was designed and prototypes were built. Work was put on temporary hold until we sail.

Saturday's at the Loft
St. Louis Park, MN


Beginning in March of 2016, I started working Saturdays at Sailcrafters to keep my skills fresh and learn more about modern sailmaking from the owner, Tim Carlson. He has been in the sailmaking and rigging business for over 35 years and is also a large distributor for North Sails. Tim is a top flight racer/skipper and regularly competes in The MAC and other sailing races.

 

Tim recently a suit of sails for a skipper competing in the last Golden Globe Race, a single hand, non-stop, 9 month sailboat race around the world. He was on deck of the race boat in France as a pre-race advisor.
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I also trained on multiple line splicing techniques, in addition to assisting with sailmaking and rigging.

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"Then one day you wake up and you realize that you're not 81 anymore. And then you begin to count the minutes rather than the days. And you realize that pretty soon, you'll be gone. And that all you have, see, is the experiences.
That's all there is, John, everything. The experiences"...J.W. Gustafson 

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