Dave Calvert''s sail loft in Islamorada, Florida, is one of the pre-eminent manufacturers of multihull sails in the world. His sails have set records, won national championships and won the respect of competitors everywhere. Now that his loft is part of the UK-Halsey group with over 50 lofts, sailors get Dave Calvert''s sails with the added benefit of local service.
Dave got his start in sailmaking building windsurfing sails where he pioneered innovations like the first full-batten windsurf sails in the U.S., square top sails, RAFs (rotating asymmetrical foils) and early split batten camber induced sails. His windsurf sails won many pro races, open class events, and speed trials around the US, in the Caribbean and at world championships.
Dave Calvert and Steve Fossett on the 125-foot maxi catamaran PLAYSTATION.
As the windsurfing market declined, the loft�s attention turned to multihulls. After all, multihulls are about as fast as windsurfers, but you could sit down and enjoy racing with a team! The first multihull Dave conquered was the Stiletto catamaran where he won the Nationals six years in a row.
Next, he pursed Corsair triamarans as they grew in popularity. These are fast trimarans that can be towed across the country, assembled in less than an hour, and raced on lakes or across oceans. The fleets were growing, especially in Florida. Calvert Sails, once again, was there on the ground floor. Working with dealers and boat owners, Calvert Sails became involved with asymmetrical spinnakers, screachers, elliptical head mains and square top mains. Calvert may have been the first to come up with a square top main in the United States. A square top main on a wing mast cat was built years before the Corsair class saw this configuration.
Calvert Sails� success earned Dave an audition on Steve Fossett''s 125-foot maxi-cat PLAYSTATION. After crewing on the successful Miami to New York record run, Dave was invited to be a driver on the trans-Atlantic record attempt. This proved to be part of history when the 12-year-old record was smashed by two days! The 24 hour distance record was also broken when 687.17 miles were covered at an average speed of 28.63 knots. Since then Dave sailed on PLAYSTATION when she broke the Fastnet Race course record and the 3884-mile East to West trans-Atlantic record.
Dave Calvert''s performance cruising catamaran GREEN FLASH.
Today, Calvert Sails are winning races in every region of the US as well as in the Caribbean, on boats that range in size from beach cats to the large ocean racers.
"These are exciting times for Calvert Sails. We recently became part of the merger between Halsey Lidgard Sailmakers and UK Sailmakers. This gives us the incredible resources of a group of over 50 sail lofts worldwide. We can now benefit by sharing ideas with a large, talented design team. Other benefits include, excellent production options when we are too booked up to make sails, and the expanded service to our customers that 50 locations offer,� said Dave.
Dave and wife Trish, own and cruise their Osborn 42 cat Green Flash, each summer to the Bahamas. They cruise 4 to 6 weeks a year, and race the cat in the South Florida events in the winter. Dave and Trish have owned several cruising boats and have cruised the Caribbean for the last 16 years.
�Multihull sail design, is also another world,� said Calvert. �Because of the special performance multihulls, the sails must have designs to optimize the high apparent winds. Wind differs both in speed, and direction, from the surface to the masthead. Twist in all of the sails must be designed for the different sheer and gradient. The proper profile and three dimensional shape must also be optimized. Both too full or too flat are slow. Multihull sail designers have gone through the learning curve. They have learned what is the shape to strive for on each boat. I feel that it takes good multihull sailors, to be good multihull sail designers. You don�t see many sail designers on the race course.�
In the first half of 2005 the UK-Halsey multihull sails tallied-up the following impressive results:
Ft. Lauderdale to Key West: First to finish, new course record, first overall, first in class B, and second in class A.
Miami to Nassau Race: First to finish, first on corrected
Corsair Nationals: First in F 31 class, and first overall.
Van Isle 360 Race: First, Second, Third.
Miami to Key Largo Race: First and second boats to finish, and first in the top four multihull classes.
Chicago to Mackinac: Third in class.
Port Huron to Mackinac: First in class
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