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Sixty years ago, in a small, dusty San Diego shop, Lowell North, a champion sailor born in Missouri, began tinkering with one of the oldest and most important inventions in human history: the sail. At the time, “innovation” in sailmaking was virtually nonexistent; sails had been more or less the same for hundreds of years. But North knew they could be faster, lighter, stronger.
Today, his namesake company, North Sails, is the world’s largest sailmaker. Its sails are used all around the globe — on ordinary day-cruisers, on super yachts, on the fastest and most advanced racing boats. This unchallenged reign over the ocean can be traced, ultimately, to one key thing: North Sails’ relentless dedication to innovation. And among North Sails’ most significant breakthroughs is a technology called 3Di — an innovation so influential that variations of it are now being used in round-the-world solar gliders, F1 racecars and the world’s top racing boats (those competing in the Volvo Ocean Race, America’s Cup, etc).
“3Di allows us to use the same materials that are available to everyone else, but to yield a higher stretch resistance out of any given material,” said Bill Pearson, North Sails Materials Technical Director. “For 30 or so years, high-performance composite [sailing] parts have been made with carbon fiber mixed with resin in a tape format, known as pre-preg tape. We’ve taken that format and we’re putting other fibers into it and a different adhesive system.”
The result of this fabric development, in part, is a 3Di NORDAC cruising sail — seamless, one-piece sails that are strong, beautiful and extremely durable.
