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Displaying items by tag: Richard Franks

Hyde Sails has announced the appointment of a new loft in Galway.

The only sailmakers on Ireland's west coast, Cullen Sailmakers was established in Galway in 1984. Since then Glendy Cullen (pictured below) has established a reputation for his loft's expertise and friendly service, manufacturing and repairing sails for both modern designs as well as the more traditional side, such as the Connemara and Galway Hooker gaff rig boats.

As the business grew, it moved to new and larger premises in Ballybane Industrial Estate. Glendy Cullen explains: "This move has facilitated our expansion and allows us to operate on a more professional and customer friendly basis. The central location of this sail loft has also proved hugely beneficial as it is easily accessible from all parts of the city and county."

glendy

The tie-up with Hyde was the next logical step, enabling the loft to offer an even more comprehensive service. 'I like Hyde's sails and the quality of workmanship is very high, ' explains Glendy. "We wanted a partner to help us to increase our production resources to enable us to meeting the ever-growing demand for our services, without compromising on quality."

Shore crew sailmaker for the Volvo Ocean Race Irish Green Dragon team, Glendy worked closely with the sailors and their onboard sailmaker during the last stopover.

Hyde's Sales and Marketing Director Richard Franks commented: "We see this as a big step for the Hyde brand in Ireland. In Glendy we have a strong local sailmaker who is already offering a fantastic level of service. The partnership brings together the strength of the Hyde brand and our state of the art production facilities, and a local, hand-on loft with the skills to service the Irish market locally at a time when Galway is expanding rapidly as a sailing area. It gives us great pleasure to welcome Glendy and his team to the Hyde family.'

 

Published in Marine Trade

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.