A Beautiful Classic is Re-born - With a full wardrobe of Rolly Tasker Sails

Rolly Tasker Sails say they were were honoured and happy to provide a full wardrobe of sails for this wonderful classic gaff ketch, a true piece of marine heritage.The 127-foot ketch "Cariad" of 1896 recently won the 2024 World Superyacht Award for her complete rebuild in the category “Rebuild Classic Yachts”. This is a well-earned acknowledgement for everyone involved in this unusual but highly successful project, which was completed in a Thailand yard that usually takes care of local fishing boats.

“Making the sails for her was, even for us at Rolly Tasker Sails, an unusual order. Sails had to be designed for a very substantial gaff ketch rig, including jackyard topsails of enormous dimensions. Also, this type of traditional sails requires a huge amount of the time honoured handcraft that we, although also making sails at the cutting edge of modern production tech, are so proud of to deliver.”

Over the course of two and a half years, the gaff ketch that was originally designed and built by Summers & Payne in Southampton, UK, was in effect totally rebuilt to the highest luxury yacht standards in a yard that did not provide the usual superyacht infrastructure. To make up for this, much creativity, dedication and determination were obviously needed to complete the project to the required standards. Not so, however, with the sails. The complete set of new sails was provided by us from our modern loft in Phuket, to the delight of the Project Manager, Des Kearns, who said of Rolly Tasker Sails: “Terrific company to deal with. Professional in all respects.”

What we share with the team at the yard is the highly skilled craftsmanship that is so typical for Thailand. Even for us at Rolly Tasker Sails this was an unusual order, with sails to be designed for a very substantial gaff ketch rig, including jackyard topsails of enormous dimensions. Also, this type of traditional sails requires a huge amount of the time honoured handcraft that we, although also making sails at the cutting edge of modern production tech, are so proud of to deliver at Rolly Tasker Sails.

We have already made one suit of sails for Cariad for an earlier refit in 2006 – 2008, but now the rig has been modified and all sails needed to be newly designed and made. We, as so many other sailing enthusiasts around the world, are extremely happy to see Cariad, now 128 years old and once again going strong, sailing in all her splendour again.

For more on this story see https://www.rollytasker.com/en/news/beautiful-classic-gaff-ketch-cariad-new-sails/