City Island Yacht Club

Incorporated 1907

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Seminar: Butch Ulmer on Asymmetrical Spinnaker – April 17, 2019

April 17, 7:30pm-9:00pm

Along with building the @UK Sailmakers group, Butch is well known as a competitor on the race course and race organizer. His sailing career spans 60 years in which he has competed in everything from 12-foot dinghies to 84-foot ocean racers. He has won the national championships in several one-design classes and has competed in 17 Newport-Bermuda Races (18 after this year), he has raced transAtlantic, the Fastnet, Buenos Aires to Rio, Miami to Nassau and seven Marblehead to Halifax races. His first Bermuda Race was in 1958 on a US Naval Academy yawl that was engine-less.

About his America’s Cup experience, he wrote in his self-deprecating humor, “I sailed with John Kolius aboard Courageous (as Tactician) for about a month when she was the trial horse for Defender. I wasn’t up to the job and was replaced by John Bertrand. Courageous out-sailed her newer stable-mate Defender and came close to beating Dennis Conner for the right to defend. Dennis went on to lose the America’s Cup that year for the first time in history. Glad I got out when I did!”

He is equally well known for playing by the rules and being fair both on the water and in business. Competitors, suppliers and customers all have gotten a fair shake from Butch and he sets that tone for the whole group. In 2013, Butch sold UK Sailmakers International (UKI), the company that owns the UK Sailmakers name, trademarks, and proprietary sailmaking software, to a large group of UK Sailmakers’ loft owners. With the individual lofts becoming owners of the brand, the global group of over 50 lofts will grow stronger and attract more lofts to the group in major sailing centers around the world. This is a unique business model in sailmaking that is tying together the individually owned lofts more closely. With the lofts becoming partners in the company, there is more personal capital invested in making the group stronger as profits from the company are reinvested to strengthen the brand. credit http://www.uksailmakers.com/about-us UK Sailmakers

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