About Us

Early days

The foundations of Hood Sailmakers were laid down by a young Ted Hood making his own sails at home in the early 1950’s in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Ted and his father pioneered the materials and the technology for weaving polyester sailcloth in a way that resulted in extremely stable “Dacron”, a reference to the brand name given by DuPont to their Type 52 Dacron yarn. Over the years other suppliers have introduced premium polyester yarns well suited to sailcloth too.

This innovation led to sails that held their shape and were much more durable than competing fabrics of the time. This combination of performance and durability established Hood Sailmakers as the sailmaker to go to for shape retention, longevity, and value.

Halcyon years

In 1966 Bath Road in Lymington became the UK base of operations, hosting a panoply of talents over the years with the famous ‘Bunty’ King at the helm; he had been asked by Ted Hood to find a location for the business and at one stage employed 40 people, with clients including former Times editor Max Aitken, newspaper publisher Lord Beaverbrook and former Prime Minister Ted Heath.

During the late 1970s, Hood pioneered the use of computers to do the number crunching for the design of a sail. In conjunction with M.I.T., Hood created the first sail design software and the networks over which sail designs were transmitted between lofts. In the 1980s, Hood pioneered the use of laser technology to cut fabric with accuracy previously unheard of in the sailmaking world. Today, we still use leading edge software and cutters to create precise shapes in a 100% integrated CAD-CAM process.

John Channon started as an apprentice in 1967, working his way up to become Sales Manager in 1983 and then Managing Director of the loft from 1990-2001, and much of the credit for eventually eclipsing the US loft must go to his drive over the years, especially his passion and advocacy for Vektron and for Chay Blythe’s BT Global Challenges 1996/7 and 2000/1.

A new century

Technology is a huge part of our lives now, but sailmaking still requires the human touch and an artisan’s skill. All the people behind Hood Sailmakers are experienced and proactive with the average tenure of our sailmakers more than a decade, and some have been with us for 20 or more years! It is noteworthy that all of our sailmaking happens in the UK too – nothing is made overseas.

Since 2006 manufacture has been based from our purpose-built loft in Wareham in Dorset, with Owain Peters lending his extensive experience as Manager; and whilst Ted is no longer with us, his spirit lives on in every Hood sail. For nearly three quarters of a century sailors have trusted Hood Sailmakers to deliver value by doing, not talking.

If it has been won, run, or done in the world of sails, it was by Hood Sailmakers.