Quantum Sails

Summary: Quantum Sails is a consortium of owner-operated franchises and corporate lofts, who believe that "there are no cookie cutter designs" in sail construction. Quantum Sails promises to put their passion to work in producing customized solutions for every client. At present, Quantum is the second-largest sailmaker worldwide in terms of sales.

Founded in: 1996, by a group of independent sailmakers.

History Highlights: Winning the 2008 Audi MedCup.
Number of locations worldwide: Over 60 locations for sales and service.

Known For: Innovation and independence.

Tech Note: Fusion M, patented process for the manufacture of membrane sails.
I.Q. Technology, business process and mindset for translating proprietary analytical & design software into real-world results for real sailors.

We spoke with Ed Reynolds, President of Quantum Sails and three-decade veteran sailmaker. Here's what he had to say about sailing, sailmaking, and what sets Quantum Sails apart.

On sailing, sailmaking, and plans for the future:

"In the rest of the world the middle class is firmly entrenched in sailing. In Australia and New Zealand, mailmen and retail clerks, they buy small sailboats and those are their Winnebagos on water. All throughout the Mediterranean – on a good afternoon you can barely see across it, it's so loaded with sails.

"In America, it seems a little more the province only of the wealthy. I'd like to see sailing made more acceptable to the middle class.

"Almost every other industry, technology has been able to drive the price down. Technology has made sailing much better, much more responsive, but in sailing, it has also had the effect of making it much more expensive. The challenge is, how can you create great product, innovative ideas, and so on, and at the same time make it lower-cost.

"We're trying to bring top-level performance down to the level of the mainstream sailor. We believe sailing should be available to anyone, not just the province of the wealthy."

"We're strong in the middle market. We want to keep serving those customers, but we can also be extremely high-end. All of our investment in Quantum Racing has been [toward this goal]: 'We want to get into the America's Cup.' We're more than capable of doing that, and it's a matter of building trust."

On what sets Quantum apart:

"Our customers don't come to us just for sails, they come to us for sailing solutions. We provide true custom solutions for every genre of sailing.

"We have a mix of corporate-owned and franchised lofts. You just can't underestimate the impact of the energy, the passion, of it being your own business, compared with being an employee for somebody. That sense of ownership in our lofts is such a strong, strong motivation. You're dealing with people who are just incredibly motivated to find solutions for anything you want to do with sailing.

"When you combine the passion and excitement of sailing, the energy and pride of somebody actually building their own business and building their own life, with the latest in technology, the combination is unbeatable. And we proved that with Quantum Racing's performance in the '08 MedCup.

"[The MedCup is] the equivalent of Tour de France for biking, Formula One for auto racing. We did that to validate our technology; validate the processes that we can then use for any sail we put on any boat worldwide. ... With our I.Q. technology, we had, we felt, as good if not better products than any sail-maker worldwide. And you can say that all you want, but it's entirely different if you go out there head-to-head with them and prove it. And that's what we did in the MedCup.

"Everybody who buys a Quantum sail ends up benefiting from that process."

Proprietary Technology:

"I.Q. Technology: What we call I.Q. Technology is a combination of design software, technology-development software, but most importantly the processes for actually being able to deliver the benefits of that software to customers.

"We have some of the best designers and best sailors, and every day I get to sit down with them and listen to their ideas for two hours. So then the next step is, how do we pass that expertise on to the next guy, [the sailor] who wants to improve his performance.

"Part of the I.Q. technology is, defining the terms. We need to know what kind of conditions, how much backstay tension they're using, and so on. All of that is able to give the designers enough supporting evidence to enable us to effectively use our design process to improve [the sailor's] performance, racing performance in this case.

"... Every single thing we do, we do consistently around the world and build upon the previous one. This allows us to document performance, document durability, and this helps us define and validate what we're doing. This helps us get to the optimum solution for the customer in the fastest way possible."

Key Take-Aways:

"We're the only ones in the world right now that have tried to take top-end technology, all the resources of a top sail-making company in the world, and combine them with the spirit of a guy building his own life. That's such a strong powerful part of what we are and how we're doing what we do. It's critical. If you have the powerful tools and resources, and you can couple it with the energy and passion, you can really come up with great solutions to your customers' sailing needs."