ibinews.com International Boat Industry | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2019 59
Markets & Regions
EQUIPMENT & SERVICES | SOUTH AFRICA
well established, having been an important
global producer for well over 20 years,
although not always as Ullman. In the past
under different management it has been
affiliated with both Doyle and subsequently
Quantum, but since 2012 it has been
working with Ullman Sails, which was
originally established by Dave Ullman back
in 1967 and is still headed by him from
the company’s Newport Beach, California
HQ. Overall, Ullman, which claims around
8% world marketshare, now supports 75
outlets across five continents, only 35 of
which actually produce sails.
Employing 130 people and open 11.5
months a year, seven days a week with
consistent night shifts, Ullman Cape
Town is a big player by any measure. The
world market is probably 60% cruising,
40% racing and we are 70% cruising, 30%
racing,” says CEO Michael England. “At
the moment we are producing between 80
and 110 sails a week across both locations.
From Cape Town we handle the bigger
sails. Locally, we regularly deliver up to 16
sails sets a month to Robertson & Caine
and sometimes six sets a month for the
rest of the country’s catamaran builders.
That means 75% of the catamaran builders
in this country are using us. Then we are
shipping 1,000 or so ‘capex’ replacement
sails, mostly to cat charter fleets, 60:40
foresails and mains, as well as the
accessories such as canvas accessories and
trapezes. Charter boats will normally be
chartering for only five years and worked
hard they will be needing replacement sails
after three. We recently delivered our
first OEM sails directly to Lagoon in
France too.”
Approximately 85% of what UllmanSouth Africa does is exported and maybe
40% or orders are generated via the Ullman
network. Shipping globally means fast
turnaround times. Membrane sails have a
five-week lead time usually, nylons four,
‘standard whites’ 10, and accessories two.
England says his factory is the only one in
Africa producing membrane sails.
One-offs and custom sails are handled
by six Ullman approved designers around
the world.
Presently big-yacht sails are few and far
between. “We are now working on a new
mainsail for a Swan 100 and another suit
for a CNB 100,” says England, “and every
now and then we handle replacement sails
for some of the Southern Winds, but we
need to be closer to that big-boat market.
For the future we’re considering opening
our own office in Palma, Mallorca.”SPARCRAFT
Sparcraft Masts is now the only spar
builder in Southern Africa. It is the latest
evolution of a business with 30-plus
years of experience – Bellamy, Zenith,
Sparcraft, Southern Spars, G-Wind have
all contributed in some form to the
present operation, which came into being
in its present guise just 20 months or so
ago when North Sail Group subsidiary
Southern Spars decided to stop producing
carbon spars at its Cape Town facility,
which prompted the sale of its Sparcraft
aluminium spar business in South Africa
to Craig Hulbert, who owned the country’s
only other spa builder at the time, G-Wind
in Durban. That decision had a big impact
on the local marine industry. Up until it
pulled out, Southern Spars, which built
its carbon spars there under the Southern Ian MacRobert at Sparcraft MastsSpars brand and aluminium spars under
the Sparcraft brand, employed no fewer
than 150 people at its large Montague
Gardens factories. Today the Cape Town
site, which has since absorbed what was
G-Wind’s new spar work, employs just 20
people in one part of the previous building,
all under the day-to-day management
of Tich Mitchell, who was one of several
Sparcraft Cape Town owners that sold out
to Southern Spars back in 2010 and has
been involved in spars and rigging for over
30 years.
Sparcraft activities there are broadly
split 50:50 between spar building and
rigging, says the company’s Ian MacRobert.
On the spar side, 95% concerns new spars
and just 5% refit/replacement work. It
obviously supplies most of the local cat
builders, although only presently supplies
Robertson & Caine with five or so spar sets
a year for its biggest 58 model. It sources its
spar tubes mostly from Groupe Wichard’s
Sparcraft France, which despite the
shared name and trademark is a separate
business; the graphic is the same, but one
is two shades of blue, the other orange and
yellow. Around 60% of the rigging activity
is new work and 40% service related.DRACO
An initiative of Karl Martin and friend
Scheepers Schoeman, Draco is an
interesting newcomer to the dinghy and
mid-range hardware business. Based in
Cape Town, it has designed an attractive
range of blocks, solid-ring guides, deck-
organisers and fairleads, whose USP is
simplicity and elegance. The product range
makes use of polished stainless steel and
hard-anodised aluminium, and crucially
does not use roller-bearings, but instead a
‘high-strength low-friction self-lubricating
UV and water-stable engineering polymer’.
All parts are sourced from local subcontract
engineering companies.
“It is still very early days for us,” says
Martin. “We have our equipment on a
few local boats, but are just starting to
develop international interest. We went to
METSTRADE as visitors last year and this
year we should have products on display
with at least one distributor... And next
year we hope to be there with our own
stand.”CENTRAL BOATING
South Africa’s two most prominent
marine equipment distributors and