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Who we are |
The principal owner, Mr. Jack Wedekind, was originally trained and
employed in the electronics field. While on assignment for ITT and under
contract to NATO in Europe, Mr. Wedekind met a person who owned and
operated a sail loft. Much free time was spent at the loft learning
techniques and operations. Jack had grown up with boats and boating on
Long Island Sound in Stony Brook New York, so this was simply an
extension of an already honed fascination.
After returning to Long Island Jack saw a need for a sail loft and opened
Wedekind Sailmakers right on the harbor at Port
Jefferson Long Island in 1974. It was a time of many changes in the sail
making trade. New materials, new design parameters, construction
techniques, but most of all the introduction of computers. “We knew what
shapes were empirically desirable, but couldn’t always achieve them in
the final product.”
The advent of the PC at an “affordable” price opened a new world to
designers.
Jack applied his sail making skills along with those of an electronics
man and developed a new way to calculate the shape and set of a good
sail. Proprietary programs were developed and the ability to customize
sails that compliment individual boats became a reality. Operating wind
velocities, apparent wind directions at all levels of a sail, sheeting
angles, sail entrance angles, camber locations, all became important
parameters of sail design. “We can make any boat point higher and go
faster than it did before,” says
Jack. “One simply has to be amazed at the improvement in the boats
sailing qualities.” “It’s hard to be a profit in one’s home town.” That’s an often-used
sentence heard around the loft! “These sails are great! My boat never
performed so well.” Is another well-heard verse used by customers of
WEDEKIND SAILMAKERS.
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