Moulding shop

The moulding shop is divided into two main areas. In one of them all of the in-house moulding processes are carried out. In the other boats are completed to whatever stage the customer requires.

All hull moulding is now done outside of SAILSetc. Our IOM hulls are made by Al McMeekin using wet lay-up into female moulds in the traditional way. Hulls for Marblehead, Ten Rater and A Class are now made using pre-preg carbon by Reverie Ltd and all come to us with the deck, fin box and mast tube incorporated into the primary hull moulding.

Agustin Moreno

Agustin joined us in 2011 and is responsible for completion of all SAILSetc boats as well as repairs to boats. Agustin worked for a high tech yacht/boat building business, Billoch Marine, in Argentina and then made his own design RG65 range of products before joining SAILSetc. Apart from an interest in model rocketry and skiing Agustin is looking forward to taking part in the classes new to him in the UK.

Hull mouldings from Reverie Ltd and partly completed hulls from Al McMeekin are taken to completed stage, or whatever stage the customer requires, in our own workshops.

The hull surface is prepared, internal mouldings are added, the foils and ballast are added, and the fittings are added. If required the rc can be installed too. A leak test is carried out on all boats before leaving the workshops and checks are made to ensure a high degree of symmetry, essential for best performance, is achieved

Al McMeekin – subcontract boat builder

Al has been moulding all our IOM hulls for some time now. While we are without a full time boat builder at SAILSetc Al also adds the remaining structural parts to the hulls, the foils and the ballast.

Many of those techniques Al has acquired making advanced model sailplanes are useful on our boats too. With Al’s thoughtful assistance we have been able to make several improvements to the way in which our boats are produced.

Sadly Denis and his family have returned to his home in Brazil where he continues to race IOM class and make some boats in his spare time. In the two years he was with us he was responsible for some 100 or so boats and raised the standard and consistency of finish considerably.

Katherine Dos Santos Fernandes

Katherine is responsible for production of almost all the structural component parts that are added to our hulls. We also supply these parts, fins and rudders, for use in other manufacturers’ boats including SAILSetc designs made under license.

Katherine has degrees in costume interpretation and technical arts/special effects, a course which introduced her to working in glass and resin. From a sailing background she now spends her spare time promoting the samba culture in the UK and directs her own samba band, Boudica.

Moulding of component parts is usually done by compressing the reinforcement materials, which have been wetted out with epoxy resin, between carefully made 'matched moulds'. The result is a moulding of controlled thickness which has an extremely low resin/fibre ratio. The fibre/resin ratio is probably higher than most pre-preg laminates. We were intrigued to find that fin skins made from high modulus carbon pre-pregs gave a heavier and much less stiff fin than our own mouldings did.

The whole area is well heated and well ventilated. Hydraulic jacks and G-cramps are used for compressing the moulds and low temperature ovens are used to heat some of the moulds while curing.

Plans and patterns of a multitude of parts pose a storage problem and we store glass and carbon reinforcements next to their cutting bench in the clean area. 

All the boats built at SAILSetc have a builder’s label bonded onto the inside. It records the names of the people involved in the boat, the design name, the moulding number and the name of the person for whom it was built.