Hyde Sails has opened a custom sail-making facility at its Benfleet loft on the UK’s East Coast. A 2,500 sq ft raised floor, used for constructing sails and making repairs, has been built in response to the increasing demand for Hyde’s sports and big boat sails.

Hyde established a dedicated big boat loft on the waterfront at Hamble in January 2001. Even after its amalgamation with Ullman Sails UK in January 2002, the companies combined loft space on the south-coast has quickly reached full capacity. With Hyde’s technical development department moving to Hamble, Benfleet utilised the empty space to provide the floor area required to expand its big boat service.

“Signs to date suggest the number of big boat sails we make this year should increase by 20 per cent,” explains Kevin Sproul, Hyde’s sales & marketing director. “Our recent successes in the small keel and sports boat market have bought many enquiries for sails on larger racing and cruising yachts.”

Martin Newman and Kevin Turner will run Hyde’s custom loft in Essex.

Hyde Sails manufactures over 10,000 new sails per year and produces sails for many of the biggest boat builders in Europe including Performance Sailcraft, Hunter Boats, Luhrs Marine, LDC, Topper International and Topcat in Germany.