Doyle Sails Salem

Sailmaking in Salem

Winning sailors know that when the boats are identical, sails become the major opportunity to gain a performance advantage. Doyle Sails Salem utilizes a computational simulation environment to engineer sails that are faster out of the bag, easier to trim, and maintain their designed shape through a greater wind range.

Our in house sailmaking team has been working together for over a decade, creating products with consistency and expertise; by sailors, for sailors.

Doyle Sails Salem is a full service and production loft based in Salem, Massachusetts. There are currently 16 employees working in the 32,000 square foot Doyle Sails loft on Swampscott Road in Salem, where the operation moved in 2007. The loft is owned and operated by well-known Marblehead sailors Jud Smith, Chris Howes, and Robbie Doyle.

Chris Howes is the VP of Sales, Chris has been selling sails for Doyle for 32 years, making him the longest tenured employee for the brand. He has had racing success in both PHRF and One Design, serving as tactician for a winning Bermuda Race campaign in 2014 and for many PHRF New England Championships. Chris has set the second-fastest corrected time in the history of the Halifax Race as well as first-place finishes in every major ocean race on the East Coast and in the Great Lakes. Chris’s “leisure sailing” is in the Marblehead Town Class, where he has won the Season Championships for the past five years and two National Championships, as well as the Marblehead NOOD regatta.

Jud Smith oversees Doyle’s well recognized One Design department which encompasses One Design sales and production. Jud’s sailing accolades include 2006 and 2018 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year, along with 10 world titles to his name across the J70, Etchells, IOD and Mumm 30 classes. Jud was the mainsail trimmer on Stars and Stripes during Dennis Conner’s 1995 America’s Cup campaign. Smith has been a sailmaker for over 30 years and is regarded as one of the finest One Design sailmakers in the world.

Robbie Doyle is semi-retired, still designing sails and managing special projects at the loft in Salem. Doyle also spends time racing on various customers’ yachts around the world.

Jud’s daughter Lindsay Smith, manages the One Design team and has been working in the sailmaking industry since 2012.

Sales associate Tomás Hornos, World Champion and multi-class National Champion, has been involved with One Design racing and sailmaking since the days of his youth. Racing, tactics, and boatspeed are ingrained in his DNA and he loves nothing more than helping other sailors who are racing, whether at amateur events or at the highest levels of the sport. His passion for One Design racing is unmatched, as you will surely find him at any of the One Design events around the country.

Willem van Waay offers his expertise in numerous One Design classes as an outside Sales Associate.

Designer and Sales Associate, Will Hundahl, is an accomplished professional sailor who’s accolades speak for themselves. He is well seasoned across a variety of boat classes from Stars, to J-Boats, IRC52s and beyond. Will served as the two time captain of the College of Charleston Offshore Sailing Team, leading them to win multiple national titles. In 2019, Will took a 1st place finish during the Annapolis-to-Newport offshore race, earning the overall Youth Trophy. He also has extensive experience with Class40’s, having sailed in the SORC and the RORC Caribbean 600, among other prestigious offshore races. His extensive sailing experience, diverse skill set, and computer science degree stood out to Robbie Doyle as the perfect fit for a mentorship in Sail-Design.

Team Relative Obscurity won the J70 2021 World Championship in Marina del Rey. We got a chance to catch up with their tactician, Victor Diaz de Leon, about their victory. Relative Obscurity’s team is comprised of skipper Peter Duncan, tactician Victor Diaz de Leon, trimmer Willem van Waay, and bow Morgan (Truby) Trubovich. In regards […]

Doyle Sails powered teams took the top two positions again at J70 World Championships this week at the California Yacht Club, Marina del Rey with light summer breeze which saw 62 teams sail in 8 races. RELATIVE OBSCURITY came out on top with 42 points through the series, four points ahead of MIDLIFE CRISIS in […]

J70 Worlds Jud Smith on Doyle Structured Luff jibs | The J70 World Championships are set for action, with racing starting on Wednesday local time in California. The world championship are hosted this year by the California Yacht Club and will be sailed on the waters of Santa Monica Bay. 62 crews will be out […]

Ryan McKillen’s entry into yachting was slightly less traditional than that of his fellow sailors – four years ago, he was based out of San Francisco as a software engineer and had never sailed before. Fast forward to present, where Ryan and his wife, Maggie, now run one of the most competitive two-boat J/70 programs […]

Written by Jud Smith for Sailing World The J/70 is a bit narrower than some of the other racing boats out there, so it’s a little tricky upwind because it’s more tender—it goes from being a boat that’s pretty underpowered in light air to a boat that needs to start depowering once the wind gets around […]

Miami, FL (February 23, 2020) – Biscayne Bay delivered its third consecutive day of epic conditions for the 2020 J/70 Midwinter Champs in Miami, Florida which wrapped up on Sunday, Feb. 23. A number of Doyle teams dominated the regatta with final placements of 2*, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 10 after a relentless eight-race battle […]

The Star Class has immense history as an organization, with its members among the who’s who of yachting’s elite competitors. With Doyle Sails helping to claim its first victory at the 2019 Star World Championship, we checked in with Jud Smith of Doyle Sails One Design Salem to learn how they climbed to the top. It has been […]

Doyle’s One Design Chief and J/70 World Champion Jud Smith of Marblehead, Massachusetts, USA has been named the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. The slate of finalists, nominated by members of US Sailing and determined by US Sailing, was presented to a panel of 28 accomplished sailing media professionals and past winners of the awards, who analyzed […]