Thomas Normand is Managing Director of North Sails France, whose American headquarters are in Newport. The Vannes-based sailmaker employs 50 people in France and produces 300 sails a year - 1% of the company's worldwide output - exclusively for the world of ocean racing: Class40, IMOCA and Ultim. The rest of the sails, including those for pleasure craft, are produced in the USA and Sri Lanka.
In the Vendée Globe 2024, skippers can only take 8 sails on board, a rule in force since the 2020-2021 edition, including two compulsory sails which are the mainsail and the stormjib. The French leader explains how skippers make their choices for the Vendée Globe, and what sails are carried on board the IMOCA Tourdumondiste boats.
How many Vendée Globe IMOCA boats do you equip?
22 IMOCAs, but not all IMOCAs use North Sails. Some teams use sails from different sailmakers for budgetary reasons, or to share suppliers and reduce risk. It's really up to each team.
How do skippers choose their sails, apart from the compulsory ones? Do they all make the same choice?
They all have the same number of sails on board. However, there are as many sail designs as there are boats starting the race. Each boat has its own sail designer, although some design for several boats. Depending on the size of the team, the designer is either in direct contact with the skipper, or with members of the design office who act as intermediaries.
There's no such thing as copying and pasting sails. They're always new shapes, to match the boat's shape, the skipper's intended use, the wind angle chosen... Some people want more optimized sails for particular wind conditions. We don't mass-produce sails for racing boats. What's more, even if the masts are one-design, the settings are different. So we have to adapt the sails to each boat shape, to the shape of the decks, which are not the same, so with different sail coverings, different edgings.
Skippers also make choices based on the performance they want to give to their race. If they're doing the Vendée Globe to win, they'll choose a more powerful, lighter, but more fragile product. For skippers whose aim is to finish the Vendée Globe, it will be a more reliable and robust product.
What are the essential sails to have on board?
The mainsail, of course, otherwise the boat wouldn't move forward. The J2, rolled up on the forestay that holds the mast forward. It's always on station. But all the sails are unavoidable after all. They are stowed inside and set according to sailing conditions.
Then, the choice of the 8 sails is very different for each one, but if we start from the stern to the front, we have the mainsail, the storm jib, the J3 which is fixed between the forestay and the mast, the J2, the J0 all in front. There's also the MH0 (Mast Head), the FRO, which is a fractional sail and attaches to the top of the mast. The QUAD is an increasingly popular sail. It's also a fractional sail at the top of the mast.
Why limit the number of sails to 8? Is this enough for a round-the-world trip, and are they all used?
They're all used, and many times. As a sailboat, the more sails you have, the better. But it's good that there's sail regulation. It limits the number of constructions and the budgets linked to sails. What's also interesting is to oblige the skipper to find the best combination for his boat, to optimize the sail cuts to get the best performance without being too heavy.
Are there different materials for sails?
The most widespread fabric is 3DI. This is a manufacturing process patented by North, which uses a robot to produce the composite sail. It's a superposition of layers of fibers pre-coated with resin and heated on a three-dimensional mold. There are no seams or junctions on different panels. The sail is a single composite panel. It's the same technology used to make a boat hull, but much thinner, so it's not as rigid as a hull. It's a flexible resin, and the different layers of fibers ensure uniformity.
Are there spare sails, like for some equipment?
No, there are no spare sails. We design the sails to sail around the world. It's possible for them to break, or to tear if the weather conditions are very rough. They have the equipment on board to repair them, but not to change them.
What is the average price of a set of sails for the Vendée Globe?
It all depends on the surface area of the sails. It's complicated to give a precise figure for the race, given that these projects are launched 4 years in advance, so there are several sets of sails used over the course of a campaign. Sails are changed more frequently. But you're looking at around ?250,000 for all the sails for the race.
Do skippers order a new set of sails just for the Vendée Globe?
Most of the sails used for the Vendée Globe are delivered between May and September, prior to the start of the race in November. Some have already taken part in the Défi Azimut or the New York Vendée - Les Sables-d'Olonne. Most were delivered in 2024.
