Reynolds Sail Design

A fun milestone for Reynolds Sail Design.

A few weeks ago we sent one of our development Snipe mainsails east for the US Masters Nationals in North Carolina.

It helped Hal and Mike top the 27 boat fleet

That's the first national championship win for an RSD sail, and I'm pretty stoked.

What makes it particularly satisfying is that this sail isn't finished.

The testing in San Diego showed us plenty. We learned where the flying shape was landing through the wind range, how the sail responded as the mast bent, and where we were beginning to run out of luff curve as the rig loaded up. There are changes already underway in the next version.

More luff curve above the hounds. Some refinement around the battens and broadseaming. A little more range as the mast bends and the breeze comes on.

That's the part of this I like most.
Design it. Build it. Sail it. Measure it. Learn something. Change it. Go again.

Sometimes there is a victory somewhere in the middle.
Congratulations to [skipper/crew] on the win — and thank you for trusting a development sail when there are plenty of proven options in this class.

First one. 🤙
Back to work.

Another weekend of letting the kids drive! 🤙

We flew to San Diego for the Melges 15 West Coast Champs at Mission Bay YC, chartered from VELA LA, and turned a championship weekend into only one missed day of school ✅

Our third regatta racing the M15 3-up — Loïc driving, Elodie on jib, and Dad doing whatever else needs doing — and these two keep taking big steps forward

A weekend of firsts:

First time with Vakaros RaceSense — including 3 OCS starts, we made good use of that feature 🤦‍♂️

We started working on roll tacks, with Loïc using Elodie's backed jib to time his footwork to cross the boat. By Sunday they were pretty excited about their coordination

First crowded leeward gates (not Loïc's favorite!) and our first time sailing the Melges in the open Pacific. Loïc even went swimming during a postponement

"Dad are there sharks?" Yep. "Cool" 🦈

Saturday's swell and off-angle chop were tough. We sailed too flat and kept hitting speed bumps

Sunday's goal: more heel, keep the boat moving

The Vakaros made the difference obvious. We found a better heel angle and had wheels in the light air and lump

At one point I heard Loïc humming

"You humming a song, buddy?"
"Yep."
"Whatcha humming?"
"Pirates of the Caribbean. Seems fitting — we're trying to steal points from other boats like Jack was trying to steal back the compass."

🏴‍☠️ Fair enough, Captain Reynolds

In the final race we dusted our friends Dave and Barb upwind, picked off two boats downwind, and finished 5th. The kids were PUMPED!

Off the water, Elodie and Morgan became instant BFFs — and discovered they share something their school friends don't quite understand: how complex, intellectual, thrilling and ridiculously fun dinghy racing is

Morgan Paxhia and Emily Paxhia did an amazing job organizing — and winning! Having a brother-sister team like them at the front of the fleet is pretty awesome for Elodie and Loïc

Being recognized with the 3-Up Family Award was a special ending

Two tired kids flew home noticeably better sailors than when they arrived

Race by race ❤️

📸 Thomas Rall / MBYC Snipe Fleet / Reynolds crew

Sometimes you should swipe right. 👉

New RSD Snipe sails getting some time on the water in San Diego.

Swipe through the full picture, then get underneath and take a closer look.

Mission Bay and some ocean lineups.

📸 Dave & Shane Tillson

Snipes away to the San Diego fleet! ⛵️

New RSD main + jibs packed up and headed south for some time on the water

Looking forward to getting these sailing, gathering feedback, and continuing to develop the RSD Snipe designs

See you soon, San Diego! 🤙

How do you design a fast sail without a computer?

That's the question I found myself asking as I looked through these again.

These are original 505 sail design notes from1967-69.

Every pencil mark, every number, every seam location, every tuck...they all existed for one reason: to make the boat just a little bit faster.

Today I spend much of my time designing sails on a computer. I can model flying shapes, compare iterations, analyze photographs, and send perfectly nested panels directly to a plotter.

Fifty-six years ago, none of that existed.
Just paper.
A pencil.
Experience.

And countless hours on the water.

These particular notes belonged to Dave Curtis, one of the great American one-design sailmakers. I was fortunate enough to work alongside Dave (and some others!) at Doyle Sails early in my career. When I left Marblehead for San Diego in 2008 to join North Sails, he handed these to me.

I've kept them ever since.

What I love most isn't that they're old.

It's that you can literally see the design process.

The main shows seam positions, broadseaming, and draft placement.

The final page is nothing but tuck measurements—the tiny adjustments that transform flat pieces of cloth into an airfoil.

The software has changed.

The principles haven't.

We're still trying to solve exactly the same problem: how do you make a sail fly just a little bit better than the last one?

Thank you, Dave, for the lessons—and for trusting me with a small piece of sailmaking history.

One of our favorite regattas of the year.

We tow the boat north, pitch a tent beside the lake, and spend the weekend sailing with friends at the Whiskeytown YC Memorial Day Regatta.

The 61st annual edition delivered once again.

Friday evening was camp setup - then smoked salmon, Fenway Franks and S'mores over the fire, and a beautiful sunset over the lake.

Saturday brought perfect conditions. Warm sunshine, flat water, and 8-12 knots of breeze. Loïc drove, Elodie trimmed the jib, and we spent the day flying around Whiskeytown Lake.

The racing was fun. We won all three races on Saturday and found enough speed in the drifts on Sunday to stay on top of the leaderboard.

But the best part wasn't the results.

It was hearing the kids compliment each other around the course.

"Nice steering through that jibe Lo"

"Great jib trim through the tack Elodie"

Watching them become teammates is even better than watching them become individual sailors.

Sunday's breeze never really arrived, so we drifted to the race course and did what any reasonable sailor would do...

We started a water fight with the neighboring boats.

Loïc earned Youngest Skipper.

Elodie earned Youngest Crew.

Reynolds Sail Design was also fortunate to support the event through the silent auction and connect with several sailors who will soon be flying new sails.

We came home with a couple of trophies, a few new sail orders, and a lot of great memories.

Goodnight, Whiskeytown.

We'll see you again next Memorial Day, hopefully with a fleet Melges 15s!

Day 1: Elodie started the day scared.
Like, genuinely scared when we left the safe, calm harbor.

Wind. Waves. Cold. New boat

Race 1: we were fast - leading at times, trading tacks at the front.

But the real win?
She was smiling by the first downwind.

Race 2: breeze builds to 12-15. Big chop.
We start planing.

Boatspeed 11 knots. Full noise.

Then- 4 ft tear in the kite on the takedown 😬
We head in early.

On the sail in, both kids said it:
"That was SO fun!"

We fixed the kite together that evening.
A couple of young at work.
Hope it holds - more breeze expected on Day 2.

First regatta
San Francisco Bay. Real Conditions.

Windy. Cold and big chop from the ebb tide 🌊

Loïc (9) drove.
Elodie (11) trimmed the jib.

While launching, Elodie looked at me and said:
"Let's not worry about beating other boats. Let's just be safe."

Deal. That was our goal ✅

Everything else came after that. Including more wind 💨

snip. snip. FUSCHIA!
kite getting a glow up