Upcycled beach bags from old sailcloth. Light and tough and cool to boot. You can carry this bag easily and comfortably and look good doing it.

Hand made on the Isle of Wight, each bag has its own story. Whether it is has battled the Southern Ocean, crossed the Atlantic or just sailed along the rivers it has earned the right to be turned into something beautiful. We respect old sails!

No two bags carry the same design, which means your bag will be a one off!  Not even Gucci and Louis Vuitton can make such claims.  With an internal pocket to keep those nick nacks safe and handy, comfy handles so your fingers don’t get cut off on the way to the beach, this bag is already proving to be a best seller.

Picture Gallery Contest

If you buy (and we hope you do) please send us your pictures of you/your bag in action and we will publish on the gallery.  Every month we will choose the best picture and send the winner a £40 gift voucher for use on the site.

Then we have start cutting them – ouch!

The unfurled sail in the picture is apparently from an old Hurley 18 that sailed around the UK.   It was very dirty and is being used as a test sail.  Out with the scissors!

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.

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.

What I didn’t fully appreciate was the havoc old sails can reek if they are dumped into landfill.  Not only do they have an issue with being told to biodegrade, but they have a habit of unfolding and protecting everything under them.  Bad all round and I do know of large companies who have dumped many sails into landfill.   Sail cloth has a lot of life left in it when it comes off a boat, windsurf, hang glider, microlite, kite etc and we intend to turn these unwanted sails into beautiful new products such as windbreaks, bags, outdoor furniture to name but a few.

There is some debate whether this is called recycling or upcycling.  I will write a blog further on this issue, but either way is reducing land fill and assisting the effectiveness of current land fill sites (although I am not a fan of land fill in any event).

Anyway, business plans, financial forecasts, some long chats (in the pub of course!) and we were committed.   So where do we find enough sails to make all the products we intend to make and what products should we start with?   Watch this space 

This blog will catalogue our journey and will also discuss issues within the recycling industry and hopefully we will have some fun along the way.