Still early days, but here we are working on some early design windbreaks and I must say they look rather good. The poles are not the oak ones I mentioned, just cheap ones taken from a Chinese made windbreak.
The strange looking orb is a solar lamp that is ugly but effective.
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Note the attractive looking beach scene with accompanying greenhouse 
This is not our first product, but it is the first sail cloth we have sewn together and made anything from that is usable.
I needed a dinghy cover and we had some very old sails that we thought we could experiment on. It was so good I thought I would try and spray paint a quick logo on it so all at the dinghy park would be able to see. All a bit of fun, but it has taught us a few things already. It is down at the Folly Dinghy Park, on the Medina river, Isle of Wight. Incidentally, the Folly Inn (pub next door) is one of the best pubs on the Island and can be access by boat or by land.
We have a new machine and what a beauty she is? I never used to be into sewing machines, but this one really is the business. It is purpose built for sail making, making easy work on the thicker sails. I have mended a few sails in my time and have used some of the large sail loft machines which was, quite frankly, scary, but even a complete novice like me can use this machine (not that I will be allowed to!).
Marcia loves this machine and it is now a new member of the family. Her old Toshiba machine is still going strong and I see a day when we have a whole range of machines (lucky us).
Anyway, back to cutting and sewing sails.
For the sewing machine nerds out there, some tech spec:
Seth Godin is a marketing guru and I (along with many others) have followed much of his advice throughout my journey.
I want to pick up on one of his marketing ideas in respect of wightsails marketing strategy and that is simply if you can find 10 people who trust you/respect you/need you/ listen to you… then those ten people love what we sell, we are in with a shout. They will tell ten more and they tell 10 more and this is an old scenario many of us are familiar with.
Seth goes on to say that we no longer market to the anonymous masses, you can only market to those who are willing participants.
‘…The timing means that the idea of a ‘launch’ and press releases and the big unveiling is nuts. Instead, plan on the gradual build that turns into a tidal wave. Organize for it and spend money appropriately. The fact is, the curve of money spent (big hump, then it tails off) is precisely backwards to what you actually need.
Three years from now, this advice will be so common as to be boring. Today, it’s almost certainly the opposite of what you’re doing…’
Seth wrote this one year ago!
It was a lovely day to start chopping up sails. We pulled out the old machine and begun experimenting with the poorest sails. But what to make? We decided to start small and make a dinghy cover I actually needed one and it would also act as a good advertisement down at the dinghy park. Just a one off as an experimental product because as we began we realised the amount of sail cloth needed to build what is a very large sail cloth sleeping bag.
I am loving this and it makes a change from trying to stow a huge sail whilst being lashed by sea and having cold sea water trickle down your neck.
Lessons already learnt?! We need a new machine (we sort of guessed this anyway), we need a nice high table, we are getting to love sails (weirdos), and we believe we have a knack for this Pictures to follow as now complete and on the dinghy, just waiting for another sunny day.
Sails have started to roll in from only a couple of locally placed adverts – people love the idea and I have been to see many people to hear the story of their sails. They all have a story which makes each product derived from these sails even more unique. continue reading…
Now this is a challenge.
If you know anything about sailing and sails the general advice is if you have to clean your sail (and this is really only if you have to) then use a brush and some warm soapy water. Anything else will destroy the sail and they are precious. But we want to chop them up and make them nice and bright. yes, we considered industrial bleach and other chemicals, but this somehow doesn’t ring true to a recycling company.
I must confess that we did try some hard strength chemicals, but what actually worked best in the end? lemon juice and bicarbonate of soda! Brilliant. Not exactly slick manufacturing process, but we are not about that.
Our first blog post (albeit written a little while ago).
The wightsails plan is simple enough, a couple of people who like sails and sailing, care about the environment and are entrepreneurs put these skills together and decided to recycle sails into new products. Yep, starting another new business and the roller coaster ride of emotions starts again. We have a number of businesses and I think I am addicted to launching new companies, it is a the fun bit after all. continue reading…