I’ve been sailing since 2009 when I first learned as an adult at a local community sailing club here in Toronto. The passion had always been inside me but until I put my feet under a hiking strap and slid my ass over the gunwale I didn’t know it was there. Once I discovered it, its been tough to keep me away from that magical combination of water, wind, fiberglass, and Dacron.
I been racing competitively in the Albacore fleet starting that same year, taken a few Laser training courses in Cabarete with Olympic hopefuls, and most recently started to see the pleasure in cruising around the Caribbean. While I’m certainly not claiming to be able to round the windward first, I can jump in almost any boat and get up to speed quick.
Through it all, I’ve loved seeing the diversity of sailing vessels on the water. There seems to be no limit to the subtle design variations from such simple inputs: a hull, mast, boom, and sail. From a distance, it can be hard to spot those differences, but of often it is the vessel’s insignia, the unique, colored logo stitched to the top of sail that does it first. It is stunning when you look at the sheer amount of different logos created to identify each vessel.
As a designer, maker, and sailor I’ve always dreamed of somehow wrapping my passion for sailing together with my career. To that end, I’ve launched my first product, a set of posters that highlight, and celebrate the variety and beauty of sailing vessel class insignia. The two posters, one color and one black and white, contain 117 different insignia ranging from dinghies, ice racers, catamarans, cruisers, and windsurfers. Its not comprehensive, but it does nicely balance boat classes most of us sailed on, know or seen with some lesser know classes that have some very unique insignia.
If you also love these logos and share a passion for sailing I’d encourage you to check us out at Hold Fast Sailing (holdfastsailing.com) and follow us on Instagram @holdfastsailing. I have the posters listed at $40 CAD/$30 USD ad that includes a high quality print on archival paper. Each poster is 24” x 36,” limited to a print run of 250 each and is hand numbered with a Certificate of Authenticity and a legend which identifies each boat class. I hope to continue to build the company with subsequent unique pieces of art and your support for this first one is much appreciated. – Joel Yatskoff
