The short history of WB-Sails
Since founding WB-Sails in 1975, we have relied on technology, research and development to become one of the very few sailmakers in the world present at the Olympic level.
When it comes to the racing sailor, we have many firsts: we were among the first design our sails with a computer in 1979, the first to install a laser cutter in Europe in 1988, the first to implement a scientific approach and CFD in our design process, the first to develop a multi-axial Maxx-fabric for laminated sails, in co-operation with Contender.
At the same time, the cruising sailor has not been forgotten: we have developed products like the spinnaker socks, lazypack-sail covers and radial-cut Dacron sails that outlast any other type of sails.
Hello, I’m WB-Sails…
The first 3D sail design program for PCs in the world was coded by Mikko Brummer in Applesoft Basic in 1981.
WB-Sails firsts
| 1979 | One of the first sail lofts to use computers for design |
| 1980 | First Mylar sails in Finland |
| 1983 | First Kevlar sails in Finland |
| 1985 | A fullfledged 3D design software in Apple Mac |
| 1986 | First string reinforced load-path sails in Half-tonners |
| 1988 | First Laser cutter specifically for sailmaking in Europe |
| 1989 | In-house VLM flow analysis software MacSail |
| 1990 | In-house VPP for performance evaluation, 5 years before IMS |
| 1993 | ShapePlot software for analysing MastCam video of sails, 3 years before anyone else |
| 1994 | First all Ultrabond-glued sails |
| 1995 | First windtunnel tests at Helsinki University of Technology to validate our flow codes |
| 1995 | First Carbon fibre Finn mast design in the world |
| 1998 | First CubenFiber sails in Europe |
| 1999 | CFD upgrade to panel codes |
| 2003 | The multi-axial Maxx-fabric with Contender |
| 2005 | CFD upgrade to Navier Stokes |
| 2006 | Ultrasonic bonding machine, no sewing |
| 2007 | DynaSim, dynamic simulation of sails |
| 2011 | CFD upgrade to LES, large eddy simulation |