MONTY SPINDLER: 

CUTTING CLOTH

Monty Spindler possesses a wealth of knowledge when it comes to sailing & windsurfing. We hear how Monty originally got into sail making, which led to him working for various companies all over the world before heading up Loftsails and settling in Tarifa.

Words: Monty Spindler Photos: Timm Fleissgarten

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BACKGROUND AND RACING

 
Born in Drexel Hill Pennsylvania, I moved to a Michigan lake… where both parents sailed and taught me with the two Optimists, which were kept on our beach. We were members of a local club where there were “Minnesota Y boat” races on Wednesday evenings… adults went with drinks, four in a boat, my crew and I raced against the adults and of course we won in the extremely light conditions on the lake. This experience set me on to my wind-career with a very positive outlook regarding sailing competitions.

When I was 13 we moved to Annapolis to the Chesapeake Bay… which featured a beach, a dock and many boats – such as Laser’s, Finn’s, Int’l 14s. Scott Steele (silver medal Windglider in LA ´84) and I were teammates on the Annapolis Yacht Club Junior program, and in the Windsurfer & Laser classes… I finished 6^th at the 1997 Laser World’s. I also taught racing during the summers at the Severn Sailing Association. Scott and I were collegiate All-Americans in 1979 and I was on the USA Olympic Team – Finn – in a non-consequential year in 1981. I was an active crew in the International 14, Soling, Star and various keelboats.

DISCOVERY & THE EARLY DAYS

My father and I saw the Windsurfer at the 1975 Annapolis Boat Show, at that time I was racing Lasers and was fascinated by the Windsurfers simplicity and speed. I bought my first Windsurfer from Ken Winner (also an Annapolitan), which compromised of a few broken masts stuck together, teak boom parts glassed together and a leaky, multi-repaired board that broke when sailing over a local oyster boat wake.

I worked at various yacht lofts in Annapolis and San Francisco – reading design sheets lofting genoas and mainsails. When I worked at Pineapple Sails (Richards and Van Heeckeren Berkeley Ca.) Kame Richards was my design mentor. I built early mylar sails for windsurfers based in the San Francisco Bay area, which essentially started my design career.

FIRST SAILS

 
I made my first yacht sail – likely at the Hood Loft in Annapolis around 1973, while I I made a pattern from a Windsurfer sail around 1976, building copies and smaller sails from the pattern with Ron Steele in the basement of the Steele’s home in Annapolis.

CUTTING YOUR WAY INTO THE INDUSTRY

As a sail cutter/builder I worked for Ulmer, Hood, and Haarstick in Annapolis. In San Francisco I worked for North, Richards and Van Heeckeren, Pacific Surfsails and Horizon. As a windsurfing sail designer I “moonlighted” at Richards and Van Heeckeren, then I worked as a designer/builder of custom sails at the Island Windsurfing in Newport Rhode Island. Sails from Island were what landed me a position at Pryde. For four years the O.E.M. and Pryde line work was fantastic – as at that time windsurfing was exploding! Masts were produced at various fishing rod factories and we began to measure mast flex and learned about sail tuning for different masts with the aim of improving performance. Neil [Pryde] and I have always been on good terms… I left Pryde with an agreement to purchase the Garda loft and went into negotiations with Gaastra (now GA Sails), F2 and North.

Things moved forwards with North and I worked several weeks at North building protos at the Garda North loft. The result was the birth of Advanced Rig Technology (ART) where I designed for 10 years and developed Robert Stroj as a designer. The ART days were the best – yielding three World Speed records, a huge, powerful World Cup team, a heavy travel schedule and the feeling that windsurfing was the buzz word worldwide.

THEN VERSUS NOW?

 
I learned to design on A4, 1:20 scale and developed a simple graphic system to illustrate luff curve distributions and vertical shapes. I stayed with this system until 2009 when I started with computer design. I’ve played around with 3D design programs, however, I’m primarily using a 2D program, using full scale on my loft floor to control curves & vertical shapes.

CUSTOM SAILS

 
I worked with Ken Winner developing race designs at Pryde, Ken established himself as the man to beat in strong winds. At Pryde I also worked with Schweitzer and Waltze to develop the Nova and Ultranova designs, which were very successful.

GOLDEN YEARS

 
ART began in 1986. Before ART, Fanatic boards were sold with North Sails. Udo Schütz (Fanatic owner) decided to start ART rather than invest in North. I then bought the Garda loft from Neil, while negotiating with Gaastra, F2 and North… I was about to launch my own brand when Udo Schütz and I agreed to work together to launch his new ART brand – he bought the North Hong Kong loft and I stayed on as the ART designer until 1996. During those golden years Pascal Maka and Theirry Bielak set three World Speed Records, Thorkil Kristensen and Fabien Pendle were pressing Björn Dunkerbeck, Cesare Cantagalli invented the forward loop, Nik Baker was winning indoors, Dave Perks was shining – among many other bright moments with many different riders.

SHIFT IN FOCUS

The Loft started in 1999… after departing ART in ’96 I worked for two years on a rehab project in the old town of Tarifa… as this project was concluding I built a custom raceboard design that went on to win the World’s in 1998 – this experience was in large what shifted my focus from rehab back to sail design.

I work in a loft, so I called my workplace “The Loft”, and when thinking about a name it was easy. It’s also partly a feeling – windsurfing hooked in- la glisse…  in a way a lift as we fly when hooked in sailing, which in a sense is “lofted”.

NAME CHANGE

 
The Loft is not a name that one can simply claim… hundreds of businesses around the world also have this name. So, I checked and Loftsails (.com) was available to claim and was more specific to what keeps me busy.

WHO HAVE YOU WORKED WITH?

 
I’ve had the very good fortune to work with so many talented athletes in my career, the list is long. Here is a partial list… Ken Winner, Matt Schweitzer, Mike Waltze, JP Siret, Dave Perks, Guy Cribb, Cesare Cantagalli, Nik Baker, Eduardo Bellini, Thorkil Kristensen, Fabien Pendle, Pascal Maka, Thierry Bielak, Valerie Ghibaudo, Natalie Siebel, Nico Goyard, Delphine Cousin, Antoine Questel, Hélène Noesmoen, Ben van der Steen, Joao Rodrigues, Patrik Pollak, Curro & Paco Manchon, Louis Morris & Alex Grand-Guillot. All of these windsurfers have contributed to the advancement of my design work. Ken, Ben, Thorkil and Curro have been especially fruitful as collaborators.

TRANSITIONING TO TARIFA

I followed the wind… from Annapolis, to San Francisco, to Newport, to Hong Kong, to Lake Garda, eventually to Tarifa. Tarifa has loads of wind and huge spaces – it’s a lovely place to call home.

DESIGN PROCESS & EVOLUTION

 
I look for weaknesses and work to improve them. It’s a step-by-step process. Existing designs are modified and compared (on the water, one on one) to series designs. Performance improvements are then applied to series sails… evolution over revolution.

Additional parts of the design puzzle include: weight & waste saving, and improving the graphic appearance of the sail.

My design technique used a 2D design program for protos and series sails, which are produced at our series loft in China. For custom sails built in Tarifa, I design with the same 2D program, then take the numbers to the table for lofting. In short – finding curves that animate rigs.

OLD VS NEW

My work changed from A4 & pencil to a 2D program in 2009. I often explore curves in real scale on my loft table before sending them electronically to China, and before building custom sails in my loft. In my view using both ways is better than working exclusively with one or the other.

MONITORING PROGRESS

It’s all about testing. There is a difference between race development and non-race development. Slalom & foil race designs have influx from the riders involved with development… in other words, each rider has their technique & preferences that affect design development. For non-race designs I rely on my testing with local riders and my eldest son, Luca.

TRADITIONAL RIG VS FOIL RIG

Rig performance is the result of the balance between the rigs lift & drag. When the board is in the water the rig might be best like a 4×4 – so generating more lift (needed to slide the board over the water and make a wake) at the expense of higher drag. In contrast, when the board is lifted [foiling] from the water, an efficient rig (with less power, but proportionally, & more importantly, a larger decrease in drag) appears more appropriate.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

 
In the morning, I kick things off at a cafe, then check coms, loft works etc. After lunch, if there are good foiling conditions I’ll go sailing! If not, I like to ride over the mountain and catch the sunset on the beach.

EQUIPE TRADING

ET asked me to design Attitude sails back in 2013, we enjoyed working together, ET ending up as Loftsails commercial partner.

FAVOURITE JOB ASPECT VS LEAST FAVOURITE

 
I most love windsurfing – when we windsurf, we are homoithyarians (man, fish & bird combined), which is a creature-concept that Barry Spanier imagined… we were in Kings Cross, Sydney, together in the early 80s, we spotted graffiti that said: “Mutate now, avoid the rush!” which inspired Barry to invent the “homoitchyarian” which became a slogan and t-shirt design for Maui Sails…  but there is sadly nothing to be found from an online search :(. So, in a sense it is becoming more than the sum of the parts – a living, breathing, unique creature playing in an amazing environment. My least favourite aspect would be writing marketing texts & tapering glass rods (for battens).

TESTING INVOLVEMENT & TIME ON THE WATER

 
I’ve been involved in testing for waves, raceboards and speed (not much freestyle, but still some) – I’ve been into many disciplines over the years. I entered three World Cups back in the day, and many national level races… I’ve been a dedicated slalom guy for most of my windsurfing career, resulting in spent knees.

Foiling has extended my time on the water! I love the smooth ride for my old bones… I’ve also become very wind specific – so 10 knots is ideal! When life is “normal” and winds are favourable, I probably average around 3 sessions per week for Loftsails freeride, foil & slalom testing.

LOFTSAILS AMBITIONS

Loftsails is popular enough to sustain itself in this present day with a difficult current windsurf marketplace and I’m still happy with the structure of the company overall. In terms of ambitions, continuing Loftsails’ product quality. Loftsails is the major player in the Raceboard arena, and I work to establish similar positions for Loftsails foil and slalom race designs.

QUICK FIRE

Most satisfying aspects of being a sail designer?

When windsurfers enjoy their windsurfing. And kids… watching fleets of young, motivated wind enthusiasts with the determination to improve.

Do you consider yourself an artist?

Qualified yes… in a very particular medium, with many numeric parameters ????

What is your ‘Wind Vision’ philosophy?

Our Wind Vision mantra is the excitement felt when seeing/hearing the wind sing- especially in anticipation of a session. For me, Wind Vision is also perception of the rig-wind encounter.

Outside of windsurfing what are your other interests?

 
Keelboat & Blokart racing (two times winning the Blokart Europeans production middleweight), playing the bass and ukelele, singing, e-biking & gardening. I also share ownership of a 90-year-old Victory sloop, which we race with success at the Royal Gibraltar Yacht Club. I also helm a J80 locally with excellent results.

Was it cool to see your children get into windsurfing?

YES! ???? My three sons windsurf, surf, sail, wind & wing-foil.

Where do you see yourself in ten years time?

Sailing.

Words to live by?

Follow your passion and tread lightly.

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