I came across Jim in the mid/late Eighties – a young Aussie sailmaker, pitching up in Hamble, working at the North Sails loft but chasing the dream of offshore racing adventure. At the time I was the designer for North Sails UK, and it became obvious that Jim had an ability to think laterally, solving practical sail production issues, and becoming a real asset to the loft team. Jim and I developed the original “Blue book” at North Sails UK, to standardise new cutting edge innovative sail construction techniques, sail rule optimimisation and sail design that we and others had developed. This really put North Sails ahead of the game, and became the standard they still use today.
Not only that, but racing with clients, his driving ambition helped bring success on the race course. Fast forward a few years – not that many in reality – and Jim had started to acquire experience racing at the top end of our sport, the Admirals Cup with ‘Jamarella’, and his first Whitbread (‘89-’90 edition), on ‘The Card’.
Meanwhile my career had progressed with a move to work ‘in-house’ for the Blue Arrow America’s Cup project, helping a small design team develop the tools to challenge for the first edition of the Cup to be sailed in the new ACC class.
At the same time, I’d started a new independent sail business in partnership with a friend with excellent practical sailmaking skills. As is the way with these things, the America’s Cup team lost their funding and folded – leaving me with an embryonic new sail brand, state of the art sail design technology, but very little in the way of brand recognition.
Enter Jim – now working towards his next Round the World race, this time to be raced in the new Whitbread 60 class. Rather gratifyingly, he saw our potential and as is his way, could see how our skills might contribute to a new Whitbread 60 campaign, and again, as is Jim’s way, couldn’t see any reason not to pursue the idea at full throttle. So there we were, a small start-up, working out of a porta cabin in Locks Heath and Jim has engineered a visit from the sail coordinator of a leading Whitbread team to listen to our proposals for a Whitbread 60 sail program…… The portacabin wasn’t going to cut it, so we coerced our landlord in the building next door into letting us turn his office into our design studio for the day. Computers, drawing boards, (it was the Nineties..), etc all crossed the yard to create a more credible environment and there we made our pitch.
Jim had collated all the wind angles, wind strength, wind directions, and sea state conditions for each leg of the 1989–90 Whitbread round the world race from sailing on “The Card”, and he cross-checked them against all available historical weather data he could get his hands on. Using probability and studying the new Whitbread 60 class rules and the Notice of Race, he worked out what the best sail inventory would be, for each leg—including sail areas, sail shapes, sail crossovers, construction, and priority sail replacements that would be needed during the race, as the 1993–94 race was going to have a similar course. The VOR60 rule was very strict and had maximum weight restrictions on masthead sails and restrictions on the overall number of sails allowed for the race. No small feet …
A somewhat surreal memory – we didn’t get that deal, (needless to say), but we did build one or two sails for that edition of the Whitbread race and the sailmaking enterprise is still prospering today. Not, perhaps, one of the most swashbuckling encounters with Jim, but an example of his enthusiasm, lateral thinking, and ‘go get it attitude’ which has exemplified his life, not just as a great sailor, but someone who strives to turn opportunities into realities.
We wish Jim and his family all the strength needed to meet his latest challenge – our thoughts are with them.
From Peter Kay
Peter Kay (Special K), is one of my best friends, and mentors. He was head Sail designer at North Sails UK 1975-89, Partner in Parker & Kay Sailmakers from 1989 onwards; Parker & Kay became Founding Partners in Quantum Sails Europe in 2000, traded as Quantum until 2011 since when they have been affiliates of the group.
Jim and the upstarts.
group.
