Reynolds Sail Design

Reynolds Sail Design Sail design and manufacturing for cruising, racing and one design yachts

08/08/2026

This is why we develop new sail designs

Ole and Catalina took the new RSD Coronado 15 sails racing in Marina del Rey this week — and gave them an awesome test.

3 wins in 4 races.
And according to Ole: “Bottom line: we were fast.”

One of the coolest moments was watching them roll over a boat that Ole told me he’s never been able to roll before. The sails had plenty of speed upwind, the main gave him a great “throttle” in the dynamic 10 knots, and they looked great off the breeze too!

But this is the part of sail design I really love: the feedback after the racing.

What worked? What didn't? Where were they fast? Where did they give something away? What did the sails look and feel like as the controls changed?

Ole sent me detailed notes, photos, and video — including some things we can make better. We found speed. Now we're looking for a bit of height in a tight lane, and refining the balance and shape for the next iteration.

Huge thanks to Ole and Catalina for putting the sails through their paces — and especially to Ole for being such a thoughtful test sailor.

Design → sail → learn → refine → repeat.
That’s the fun part.

How do you design a fast sail without a computer?That's the question I found myself asking as I looked through these aga...
08/01/2026

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 sail...
06/06/2026

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 ...
04/29/2026

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 regattaSan Francisco Bay. Real Conditions.Windy. Cold and big chop from the ebb tide 🌊Loïc (9) drove.Elodie (11)...
04/27/2026

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
04/19/2026

snip. snip. FUSCHIA!
kite getting a glow up

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