BACKGROUND
I have been involved with the RRD sail design team for six years so far. When it started I was just testing and giving feedback to Tomas Persson who was our designer at the time. Tomas was so busy he just gave me all the design programs and offered to help me learn the trade. It was basically an apprenticeship and he really taught me everything he knew. In the beginning we would talk about what I wanted to change and he would tell me how to do it. That then developed into me making the changes and then running them by him, until about four years ago when I took over the sail design completely. Being in charge of the sails is not only the design side but also the whole project management of the production process. There is also co-ordinating the graphics, the materials and communicating with all the different factories on all aspects of the sail production. I am also in charge of all the masts and booms. So in total I have eight or nine factories I have to deal with. Most of these are on different time zones to Gran Canaria so that means a lot of late nights and early mornings! All the other duties I have aside from the actual sail design is the really time consuming part of the job.