from the trenches
A little bit of Quantum love from Doug Stewart, stuck in the Annapolis loft while everyone else is having fun in the sun. Keep an eye on the Quantum blog here..
It is 35 degrees up here in Annapolis, and from where I sit it looks like (except for a day of the light stuff yesterday) the weather gods have been kinder to my workmates in Key West than to me here in the office. On my plate this week is a new order for a Tripp 77, a full inventory for a Matt 12 in Australia, and finishing up some final details on a Swan 100 order. Just because it seems like every Quantum employee is at the regatta, the truth is we are a big company and the orders continue to roll in, and designs have to be done in order for the production team to do their job! As I am the designer of record for the Melges 32 class, my Key West will start Monday morning when Scott Nixon walks in the door. Over a couple of espressos, we will go over each sail and discuss what we need to do to make the sails perform better in the range for which they were designed. The nice thing with Scott is that he takes great notes and pictures throughout the regatta and is my eyes on the boat. As we have already established a set sail designs that have proven to be fast, so nothing is drastic. We discuss shapes, fiber and finishing details, and from there changes are made. It is these changes that keep Pisces, Warpath, Heart Breaker and more battling at the top. It is a collaborative effort between pros in the field, designers on the boats and at their desk, and production guys on the floor that get the results! Whether it is Tp52s, Farr 40s, Farr 30s etc., the model Quantum has in place works.
Good luck today and push some of that warmer climate northward!
