When Quantum Racing was in Valencia for the launch and initial tests of their brand new TP52 yacht we had the chance to catch up with Ed Reynolds and talk about his company, the team, his competitors North Sails and the long-term effects of the wing in the sail business.

VSail.info: I wanted to ask this question towards the end of our talk but since we started chatting on the issue, I’ll start with it. Do you consider the wing to be a threat to conventional soft sails, longer term?
Ed Reynolds: You know, I’m relatively ill equipped to speak as an expert on that…

VSail.info: But you are the president and a partner in Quantum Sails, one of the world’s biggest sailmakers, so I can’t think of anybody better suited. My question isn’t about whether you agree or not with the decision Oracle Racing took for the America’s Cup. It has been taken and we have to consider it as a fact. Do you think that this development will lead, longer term, to a radical change in the sail business?
Ed Reynolds: The mainstream clientele that we have is simply not equipped to deal with a wing mast. Who knows what tomorrow will bring in issues such as how do you take a wing mast down, how do you put it into your local boat shed. I don’t think that for the mainstream customer base for sailmakers that the wing mast is going to impact it dramatically. I think the wing mast concept is really exciting for sailing, every aspect it. When I watched the BMW Oracle trimaran coming into the starting box in the last America’s Cup and I thought, “It’s so cool!!”. I see nothing negative from the wing mast for the overall sport and I like the technology.

VSail.info: If the sport’s pinnacle event is held on a platform completely different from what your mainstream clientele is used to having can that be a negative factor?
Ed Reynolds: Just from the fact it went into the multihulls probably that affects a bit anyway. In my view, the big question is how it defines the pinnacle of the sport? The America’s Cup has always been a different event from what every mainstream sailor has been doing.

VSail.info: However they could always relate to the America’s Cup boats, they were always monhulls with soft sails, just bigger and more technologically advanced.
Ed Reynolds: I agree that but no matter how I look at it, I don’t see a negative impact. It’s a new technology, it’s interesting but conventional sailmaking is NOT going to go away. The last America’s Cups were definitely sailmaker platforms and I don’t think this one will be as dramatic of a sailmaker platform as the previous ones. For the overall impact on the sport, I think it’s exciting, it’s new and it draws attention.

One of the things I always felt sailing was missing, when compared to other top sports, is that only sailors watch sailing. The events are sailing events while if you look at soccer, tennis or basketball those are sporting events. I’ve never played soccer in my life but I watched the World Cup because it’s a sporting event. A lot of people that know very little about American football watch the Super Bowl. Sailing hasn’t transcendend from being only attractive to the sailing public to being attractive to the sporting public. I don’t say that this new technology will attract a more broad-based crowd but I think it has the potential.

That said, I think this is getting people to think out of the box, I guess one of Russell’s big goals, and be a little bit more innovative, maybe not mainstream in the way the sport is perceived. I see a lot of logistical, fundamental issues that make it difficult for the wing mast to become mainstream for the general public. This very top-end part of the industry maybe makes up just 5% of the market. The rest of the clientele will be interested in the lessons learned and the amount of new technology you can translate down to what they do on a daily-sailing basis. I don’t think it will redefine the market and I don’t see people with little wing-mast boats in front of their houses anytime soon just from all the logistical handling. You need a full-on team to manage this type of equipment.

The brand new 2011-generation Quantum sails being tested on the Quantum Racing TP52 yacht. Valencia, 13 April 2011. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / VSail.info

VSail.info: My question might sound stupid but could we potentially step a mast on a TP52?
Ed Reynolds: I don’t believe so, I am not confident about the stability aspect of it. I think the multihull platform, from my limited understanding, gives you the amount of power, of lifting you require. You need stability that I’m not confident a conventional monohull can offer.

VSail.info: Is Quantum Sails interested in looking into the development of wing masts? As a business, are you considering the possibility of going into that field?
Ed Reynolds: We always think of going into that field. We haven’t been involved with the America’s Cup for the last 3-4 cycles and for us it’s important improving at that top level. This has also been the basis of why we have done the Quantum Racing project, our ability to prove to the very top grand prix sailors that we have the technology and resources to operate and function on a level that we can provide value to their programs. I would say that most likely our first interaction would be with the soft-sail program of a team. Every sailmaker, North Sails included, is somewhat in the same boat right now. I would even say that this has put us in even playing field with every other sailmaker in regards to the america’s Cup. In the past, North had years and years of all the data and all the information and this doesn’t really come into play right now. It’s pretty much an open book right now.

VSail.info: Let’s focus on Quantum Racing now. You started the program in 2008, so this will be its 4th year. Do you consider it to be a success? Have you reached the goals you had initially set?
Ed Reynolds: Absolutely. We have grown dramatically with our grand prix business. I think that in 2007 our assessment of the grand prix business was that North had approximately 95% of the really top-performance racing programs while, I think, at the time we were at 1.5%. It’s difficult to get the exact figures in the sail industry because everything is privately held but that was our general assessment. However, we don’t want to be as big as North.

VSail.info: Why?
Ed Reynolds: It’s a very high exposure, there are a lot of management issues and we would like to be a smaller company, able to do the type of work we want to do on our level. Being as big as North would have been a difficult thing to adjust to the last economic downturn. The expectations and goals that we had set were to get 15-20% of the grand prix business after the end of the Quantum Racing program cycle. I think we are very close to that figure and in fact, we probably were the only sailmaker to gain market share in 2010. I can’t prove it but I’m pretty confident.

VSail.info: What do you mean by “grand prix racing”? What boat classes and racing circuits do you include?
Ed Reynolds: In the AUDI Medcup we have two boats, Quantum Racing and Synergy, but if you go to the IRC events we have a very large percentage. The Farr 30, the Melges 32, Megles 24, these are the classes we aim at. We are just starting to get into the Maxi yachts and I’m very comfortable that our goal of getting 15-20% will be achieved.

Quantum Sails provides the sails for Iberdrola's Soto 40 yacht. Valencia, 14 April 2011. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / VSail.info

VSail.info: If I’m not mistaken you will not be on any of this year’s Volvo Ocean Race yachts. Is that correct?
Ed Reynolds: Yes, that’s correct and this is another horizon for us. You know, one of the things I wanted to say about Quantum Racing is that in 2007 nobody would buy our TP52 sails. One of the reasons we did the program was to say, “OK, we are not going to get a top-quality program to take a risk on us, so we need to go out”. We made huge investments on our technology, our product development, our processes and we needed to do that ourselves. The issue with Quantum Racing is that it hasn’t been a program put up together just to win the Medcup. It’s our test platform. Every new thing we want to do, we test it on this program. Back in 2008 other than Terry Hutchinson, I don’t think that anybody else in our program had interacted with Quantum before. Part of the directives we had given them at the time was to be brutally honest because we were doing it for one reason. We want to learn what the world’s best sailors need from a sailmaker, we want to have a good and honest assessment of our product and our technology.

Their job was not the conventional owner entertainment but to give us a vehicle and give us honest and professional input on our products. The team we’ve had has been unbelievable at that. We made great strides in it and as I said before, the best answer as to whether Quantum Racing has been a success is a question. What was your image of Quantum Sails in 2007 and what is it today? I think that across the spectrum, among our competitors, the top sailors and the industry in general, the image of Quantum Sails in dramatically different today than 4 years ago.

VSail.info: There is no doubt about that but North Sails has also made a huge advance with the 3Di. Every single boat in the Volvo Ocean Race will now have 3Di sails as will the TP52′s, at least the ones that have new sails this year.
Ed Reynolds: It will be interesting to see where it goes because in the previous Volvo Ocean Race virtually all boats had massive failures with their products. As far as 3Di is concerned, the question is what do you want from technology? You want better performance, more durability and, like any other technology industry, at a lower price. I think that North has a long way to prove that 3Di fulfills any of those three issues. I don’t claim they won’t but they have a big challenge. I don’t believe it’s less expensive, there is nothing that proves it’s more durable, I don’t think it’s lighter and I don’t think there is anything that shows it outperforms any other product in the market. It’s not even something new because it’s a technology developed in 1992 by Bill Koch and America3 with ribbon technology. So, you’re looking at legitimately 20-year old concepts that have been rebranded.

VSail.info: What about your sails this year? Is what we see on the Quantum TP52 yacht on her first tests here in Valencia an evolution or a revolution?
Ed Reynolds: No, we don’t have any revolution but an evolution of our products and I will respectfully disagree that 3Di is a revolution. It’s basically an evolution of a 19-year old process. i’m not an expert on that but my understanding is that without buying Cuben Fiber it would have been very difficult to do the 3Di. I feel pretty adamant 3Di isn’t a revolution. On the other Cuben Fiber, when it came out, was a revolution.

VSail.info: What is currently your main focus of research and development?
Ed Reynolds: Our focus is the continued development of our FEA/CFD program which is our iQ technology. That’s to have a more consistent plane form, being able to identify the best aero solutions for each and every boat and to have a proper most efficient solution. Within that, our overall processes of how we do it, how to increase durability, the ability to reduce costs, to give a world-class performance at a reduced cost. What does technology for the sake of technology do for your end customer?

Look at electronics, computers, even cars, each and every year you get better products at a lower price. In the sailing industry you can definitely get better products but I have never seen an end result that brings a direct benefit to the customer base. It seems it just gets more and more expensive. We haven’t seen sailing perfect that yet. As I said, our philosophy is to give the best performance, to identify the best aero solutions every boat needs, to do the most efficient concepts and structure the engineering to give the durability but at the same time with the real focus on costs. There will be a point, and I think we are getting close to it, that we call a point of resistance. Even the most affluent boat owners will say at some stage, “Boy, am I having that much fun? This is a LOT of money! Is is THAT much fun? I can do other things with my money”.

I’m not saying we should be doing lesser products. Everybody wants the best product, everybody wants to win but at the end of the day, I think nobody loves to buy sails. We all love new stuff but at some point the industry will hit a total point of resistance.

Quantum Sails provides the sails for Iberdrola's Soto 40 yacht. Valencia, 14 April 2011. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / VSail.info

VSail.info: Do you practice what you preach? Is the mainsail, for example, on the 2011 Quantum Racing TP52 cheaper and better performing than the one in 2008?
Ed Reynolds: Absolutely. It’s lighter, it’s stronger, the shape is better, it’s more durable and it costs less.

VSail.info: What teams will you be working with this year in the Medcup?
Ed Reynolds: In the TP52 class we have Quantum Racing and Synergy. Unfortunately, Cristabella had some issues and couldn’t enter the Medcup this year. This would have been our 3rd boat, and it would have given us a 33% share of the fleet which is well within where we feel we should be. The Soto 40 class is a bit of a disappointment this year. Iberdrola has our sails but Negra from Argentina just made the decision not to enter the circuit this year. This is very, very disappointing. We felt we were going to have the best two programs in the Soto 40 class but I’m still extremely happy and proud that we have Iberdrola.

VSail.info: You stated that the Quantum Racing program wasn’t conceived just to win but still it has been World Champion twice in the TP52 class. Have you set a goal for this year’s AUDI Medcup?
Ed Reynolds: We won the Medcup in 2008 and we finished second overall in 2009 and 2010!! In some capacity we have been involved in every Medcup since the beginning. You know, it’s obvious that when you have some of the world’s best professional sailors, they want to be competitive and win. Our expectation was that we were going to do well and our ultimate goal was to develop and validate our technology. It’s one thing if you say you have a great CFD/FEA program and another thing to prove it. We proved it. We are capable of competing and providing the world-class sailors what they need to compete at the level they want. We were never given the opportunity to prove it in that level, so we created the opportunity ourselves. The ultimate goal was better products, bring more brand awareness to Quantum as a viable option at this level.

In addition, through our aggressive online and social media approach, we give the fanbase an insider look at the operations of a sailing team. We didn’t restrict anything and we just showed there was a lot of work that goes into this. I think that part was a great success and I was surprised by the size of the fanbase that follows Quantum Racing.

VSail.info: What goal do you have for this year? Now that Emirates Team New Zealand is gone is it going to be easier?
Ed Reynolds: No, on the contrary, I think it will be much more competitive this year. There will be 6 new boats and we will redefine some things within our team. Our target is to finish the season on the podium.

Quantum Sails provides the sails for Iberdrola's Soto 40 yacht. Valencia, 14 April 2011. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / VSail.info