North Sails
In 1957 at age 30, Lowell North decided to leave aerospace engineering to become a sailmaker. He never looked back.
North, who won Olympic gold and bronze medals and four Star World Championships, never relied on intuition. He was only swayed by what could be quantified, so he built a company based on science, using constant testing and rigorous scientific methodology to build better sails. And that changed sailmaking forever.
When Lowell was 10, his family moved from Missouri to Los Angeles. Lowell’s father, who worked in oil discovery, purchased a 36-foot fishing boat. The purchase included an 8-foot tender, which Lowell instantly appropriated. He refurbished the boat and, at a tender age, made a new sail. “I’m sure it was the world’s worst sail,” he says. “The boat would barely sail to windward.” But it was a start.
Five years later, the family moved to Newport Beach, CA, where Lowell honed his racing skills in local one design fleets. Later they moved to San Diego, CA where the senior North bought a used Star boat so he could crew for his son. “The Star class was way over our heads,” remembers Lowell, “but we learned a lot. We had these awful old cotton sails. It started me thinking about what makes sails fast.”
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