Al
Declercq began his sailmaking career working for Hood Sail in
1979. One year later he opened a North Sails loft in Detroit. Nine
years later, he sold his interest in the North Detroit loft to
Terry Kohler and opened the UK Detroit loft. This loft quickly
grew into the largest and most respected loft in the Midwest.
After 15 years with UK, we decided to join the Doyle Team.
Al has over 50,000
miles of offshore sailing experience including one Fasnet Race,
one Trans-Atlantic delivery, 1 Trans-Pac race, 5 Miami to Jamaica
races, 5 Newport to Bermuda races, 6 Marblehead to Halifax races,
6 St. Petersburg to Ft. Lauderdale races, 2 Newport to Cabo St.
Lucas races, 3 Annapolis to Newport races, 38 Pt. Huron to
Mackinac races, 32 Chicago to Mackinac races and 3 Trans-Superior
races.
Al has won the
One-Ton Worlds, One-Ton North Americans, Two-Ton Worlds, Two-Ton
North Americans, MORC Internationals, 17 Mackinac races and
numerous one- design events.
Al is owner and
head designer at the Doyle Detroit loft and works closely with
Richard Bouzaid at the Doyle New Zealand loft to insure our sail
shapes are second to none. He has been instrumental in refining
our sled shapes; first with Fred Detwilers’s highly successful
Andrews 70, Trader and now with Detwiler’s new TP 52, Allan
Fletcher’s Great Lakes 70, Colt 45 and Bill McKinley’s NM 68,
Denali. Aside from the sleds, Al’s design projects include the
Beneteau 36.7, Beneteau 40.7, J-105, J-120, and Etchells 22 along
with numerous other One-Design and PHRF boats. Our customers’
total dominance in the Great Lakes region documents the success of
our sail designs.
