Developments
Developments
We will re-open for business on Monday 5th January.
Regular customers will be aware that we are open for business four days each week, Monday to Thursday. This applies to collection of goods as well as dealing with mail order business. As usual the SAILSetc website will be able to take your orders at any time and on any day, but please bear in mind we will not be able to take your phone calls on Fridays.
The SAILSetc office is staffed by Lili and Jorge four days a week, Emma in the mornings, Graham much of the time, and Lorna occasionally.
SAILSetc boat designs and developments
2025 was another notable year for SAILSetc boat designs with Ante Kovacevic using a DIAMOND to win the 10R World Championship. The designer placed second and won the GBR and GER 10R championships as well as the GBR 6M and A Class championships (ROMANZA and SWORD respectively). Chris Harris won the free sailing national championship for the third year in a row with a Bantock designed LANCE. The 2nd and 3rd placed boats were also by Bantock.
Contributing to the performance of the winning 6M and A Class boats were deck sweeping headsails that gained some 40-50 square inches of sail area as well as improving close windedness. After 33 years of little significant development of the concept Graham used a servo to control the GIZMO functions on his Marc Pomarede NIOU NIOU. Independent control the GIZMO functions adds useful versatility and refinement and will be developed further.
BOATSetc is no longer building boats and the SAILSetc moulds will be re-patriated at some stage. Clearly the 2005 SWORD and 2006 DIAMOND designs have competitive life remaining and it would be good to find a top quality builder familiar with pre-preg construction capable of exploiting them in the future. Please contact the office if interested.
After a long absence of a Bantock designed IOM being available in the UK, the prototype FORKILO has been produced by Martin Dovey. Contact martin(at)design2sail.co.uk for details. Martin's range of Bantock designs now includes an IOM, a 10R, an A Class and a free sailing A Class.
Work is progressing on a printable 6 Metre design that is very close to the ROMANZA design. Hoped to be ready early this year. More information on the ROMANZA hull page.
Internet Security - several things to note.
SAILSetc has NO facility to take payment on line. SAILSetc does not store any customer card data on its computers. We are GDPR compliant with regard to personal data.
Export orders
On all sales to customers outside Great Britain we deduct British Sales Tax (VAT) from the cost of goods. This amounts to 16.67% of the headline prices that are displayed on this website. You may have to pay your country's VAT before you receive the goods and this may cause a delay in delivery. Hopefully this will not be a major problem. Experience seems to show that for small value orders the local tax may be waived and delivery is not unduly delayed. Sadly this is not the case for all countries so please allow plenty of time for delays with deliveries.
EU based stockists
EU based stockists of SAILSetc products include: Pedro Egea of RC Sailing Lab, Virginio Bogliette of Barcheradiocomandate in Brechia and Matteo Longhi of Stars and Spars in Lecco north of Milano. They should be able to supply within a few days of your order. Look for the stockists tab on our website home page.
USA resident customers
From August 2025 the USA government’s 10% Postal Delivery Duties Paid (PDDP) on goods imported from the UK by the international postal system is to be paid by the purchaser to the sender as part of the delivery cost. We, the sender of the goods, are required to pay this duty on your behalf, plus a handling charge of £0.50 to cover the additional cost associated with providing clearance services into the USA for the Royal Mail (the postal service we use to send letters, small and medium parcels) before the goods can be sent.
The duty will appear on your invoice as an additional charge along with the cost of post and packing. The good news is that transit of your goods through customs should be streamlined.
When sending parcels to the USA by a carrier service we do not add any duty to the invoice as the receiver will pay the taxes directly to the USA customs in order to receive the goods.
Delivery times
While the time taken for our products to travel to customers in Australia, New Zealand, the Far East and the Americas remains much the same as usual, the passage of our products through the customs control of European (EU member) countries has increased to several weeks. In some instances it can take 3 weeks for our goods to arrive with the customer. This is something we have no control over, is a result of Brexit, and depends on how each European country treats imports from the UK. All we can suggest is that you take this into account when planning your purchases and consider having them delivered by a carrier rather than by post.
Suitability of our products
To help you find products that are ideal for your application the website allows you to choose products by class as well as products by category. If you use the products by class route to find, for example, standing rigging, you will be shown only products that are suitable for the chosen class. On some product pages, for example, those for rigging wire and Dyneema lines you will find a link to the SAILSetc Rigging Guide. This guide lists all the major component rigging parts (excluding spars) and the suitable products for the common major classes. The Rigging Guide can also be found on the Downloadable Documents section of this website.
Cheques
We no longer accept payment by cheque, sorry.
All best wishes for a healthy and happy 2026,
Graham, Lorna, Lili, Jorge and Emma.