Argyll’s Owen Sails gets following wind from Beijing’s Yngling Gold

We recorded at the time that Owen Sails, Scotland’s largest sailmaker from Benderloch, had been contracted to develop and supply sails to Team GB’s Yngling boat crewed by Sarah Ayton, Sarah Web and Pippa Wilson. Now they’ve really got the wind behind them (appropriately, in the sailing world) with the Gold medal going to the girls in the Yngling class and Sarah Webb attributed some of their success to the unique spinnaker designed for the boat by Chris Owen. One of three partners in the firm – the others are Diana Shellcock and John Grant – Chris Owen was part of the team in Beijing and had the thrill of seeing his spinnaker emerging through the mist first in the final – and heavy weather – ‘medal’ race. This is top-flight, cutting edge sail design technology now known to be in Argyll’s repertoire. It will be interesting to see what happens to Owen Sails order book.

And there was another Argyll link to the Yngling Gold. As we noted in our earlier news item announcing Owen Sails’ contract to the girls’ boat, Iain Cleaver, an experienced sailor himself, sponsored the new Yngling class boats used in the competition, through his business, Highland Heritage Hotels.