Sept 29th 2026
SAILCLOTH UPDATE
It seems there is no viable way of continuing with Mace sailcloth and thereby a move to white sails. Whilst this will be a major change to the very essence of Squib identity, it is very much being forced upon us based on the information coming from cloth manufacturers, sailmakers, our technical committee and, indeed, other classes with non-white sails.
The “top down” situation is:
Contender (well, their new owners) will only manufacture in much larger production runs at an ever increasing premium.
No other sailcloth makers are available.
Existing Sailmakers can not fund a production run of cloth and there is unlikely to be any sailmaker who would.
The NSOA do not have the funds to purchase the cloth to hold in stock (somehow) for the sailmakers.
Implementing any of the above would lead to sizeable increase in cost of sails for members.
There is not enough mace cloth remaining to fulfill expected demand over the coming close season and into 2027.
So this has become not an “if” or even a “when” ….we need to make the rule change promptly so that we can transition without an ‘arms race’ to the proposed solution which is white cloth of the same cut, weight, design and sailmakers giving a progressive transition with no change in performance.
The remaining challenge is for us to come up with a way of ensuring a unique Squib identity…any ideas?
Phil Aspinall and Malcolm Hutchings will be at Rutland this weekend to provide further detail, answer questions and take your feedback. Similarly, Ronan MacDonell and David Stewart will be at Lough Derg to do the same.
Dick Batt as one of our three sailmakers will also be at Rutland.