One Design Racing Sails
For dinghies and one design keelboats, Kingston Sail Loft is actively testing, racing with, and further developing sails for 505s, Albacores, and Sharks, and we are interested in working with racers in other regionally active one design classes.
505
The Kingston Sail Loft 505 full triradial spinnakers are available, and they are being raced with by 505 sailors in Ontario.
The first prototype spinnaker helped us win the 2024 505 Eastern Canadian Championship. After lots of photographs, and discussions with our designer, we flattened the leeches slightly on the design. After testing, we think this second generation version is better for wire running than the first generation.
Main and jib prototypes are being tested; we are racing with them and tweaking designs to ensure they provide world-class speed. We modified the original prototypes several times, took lots of photographs, obtained feedback from some 505 sailors, and recently built the second generation prototypes. These look terrific and appear to be going very well. We used these on the last day of the 2026 East Coast Championship, and won the one light air ace with excellent upwind speed and pointing. We used the main and jib again for the Saturday of the 505 Ontario Championship getting finishes of 1,2. We lent them to another team for Sunday racing, and they finished second on the day, and third overall. We will continue racing/testing them in a range of conditions, but are very pleased with them so far.
We are also testing a Hyde 505 spinnaker.
An article about the development of the KSL 505 spinnaker is at:
https://505.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sail-Design-and-505-Spinnaker-Design.pdf
Kingston Sail Loft stocks Hyde Sails 505 top and bottom covers, mast bags, and are working in-house on 505 blade bags (see the Sail and One Design Covers and Accessories page). We also stock 505 slot gaskets or make custom sets to your requirements. We stock Selden 505 Alto masts and carbon booms (we have one Alto and one carbon boom in stock right now) as well as some spar parts such as goosenecks, heel fittings T hooks for attaching line, and the rubber plugs to hold the T-hook fittings in the mast.
Albacore
Kingston Sail Loft has been working on our Albacore sails, first designing on the computer, then building prototypes, loaning them to Albacore sailors, and racing with them ourselves.
We have Albacore flat top covers and are working on an over-boom top cover. We have a few Albacore slot gaskets in stock and make more as required. Kingston Sail Loft is a Selden dealer and is working to bring in Selden Cumulus and Alto masts and 2633 booms for Albacores.
Shark
Kingston Sail Loft has Shark mainsails, and genoas based on the well-respected John Clark Shark sail designs available. We also have jibs and spinnakers available. Bob Colborne is also developing some alternative Shark designs in-house, for in-house building.
We are considering building Shark rudder bags, though Shark rudder profiles differ.
We may stock Selden 2633 booms for Sharks if there is interest from the Shark fleet.
There is a stronger Waterat Sailing Equipment vang attachment fitting for the 2633 boom. It is an aluminum T-section extrusion that distributes the load over a much longer length of the 2633 boom. The hole for the vang attachment is reinforced with stainless steel plates. These were originally designed and built for 505s when they used the 2633 booms. 505s use very high vang loads and the 2633 boom and standard vang attachment were not always able to handle the vang load. The Waterat fittings successfully addressed this, and should do the same for Sharks.
