Sailing By With..........Dick Sekonda

When Toronto sailor Dick Sekonda lost his mast while skippering his yacht, Macintosh, fourteen years ago, he had no idea his career as a successful, self-employed, mining engineer was about to change tack dramatically.

He can laugh about it now but at the time it was a frightening experience.

“It was October 1992,” recalls Dick, “racing off the Toronto Islands, running a reefed main and a number three, plus ten crew sitting on the high side, Mackintosh hit a bad chop and the lightweight, racing mast went overboard with all the rigging. Luckily no one got hurt and there was no serious damage.”

New rigging was designed, the keel replaced and a taller mast stepped to improve performance. Then in 1994, it was decided that having replaced most things on Mackintosh, why not try and design a new set of sails?

In the early days, Dick and two friends decided to collaborate and build sails for their three boats as a winter project. They had all been racing competitively for a number of years and had a good understanding of what made the boats sail well and what didn’t.

“At first,” says Dick, “we designed sails based on our perceptions of what we wanted. We used third party software to interpret the panel layers we needed to produce the shape of the sails. Using my basement, we cut and laid out the panels for the three different boats, glued them together and sent them out to a sail maker for final assembly.

“Then we went racing, and won! We thought, hey we can do this! It was a tremendous thrill, but the thrill was not only competing on the water, it was the thrill that you’ve actually built something you’re competing with.

“And you’re competing on different levels: the design level, the manufacturing level and finally on the water. I got a tremendous kick out of it. So we built more sails!”

The three friends eventually left the basement for a small shop where they continued to build sails, mainly for their friends. However, in those early days, it was still very much a hobby, with Dick still working full time as a mining engineer.

Then the turning point in Dick’s career occurred. Sobstad, the sail makers, went bust, so they were able to buy their plotter and sewing equipment, no longer relying on outside assembly.

Dick decided to take the plunge, and in 2003, the gradual transition from self-employed mining engineer to full time professional sail maker was complete, and the ‘hobby’ shop became a commercial sail loft, Performance Sails.

Dick has an infectious enthusiasm for his new career. Asked if he considers his craft an art or a science, he replies, “A little bit of both! For the type of recreational sailing we do there’s loads of empirical information proven to work. For example, when deciding on cloth selection.

“Then there’s the selection of sail shape and the application of that shape which is going to determine the success or failure of the sail as a performance sail. We can turn to publications and, of course, the Internet for much of our information.”

The ‘art’, explains Dick, comes in when selecting, for instance, construction techniques and the ‘detailing’ such as how to attach a sail slide, or finish a corner.

Then there’s the aesthetics and graphics to consider. For example, producing designs on spinnakers such as insignia or logos.

“I would say that a ‘performance’ sail is one designed to make the boat perform as well as it can, for whatever its purpose or use by the owner. I would think that’s exactly what the folks who are out for a casual Sunday afternoon sail, or want to cross the Atlantic, or race around the buoys, all want.

“We have to be aware that some people have to make one sail do many jobs, so the design inevitably has to be compromised.

“We also recognize that some people are less interested in toughness or longevity because of the type of sailing they’re doing. But the base line is always that we want to make the boat go as fast as it can.”

Dick still continues to race and sail Macintosh as fast as she can go. His mind often drifts back to the de-masting off the Islands all those years ago.

But nowadays, he doesn’t want any more unexpected career changes.