TUSHINGHAM BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE!
TUSHINGHAM BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE!
Since 1977 when Roger Tushingham started up his namesake brand, ‘Tushingham Sails’ have been at the forefront of U.K. windsurfing. The facts speak for themselves. At some point during their time on the water most British sailors have used a Tushingham, while a staggering 70% have actually owned one. Head to any popular beach in the U.K. and most likely you will see one out blasting, as this dynamic home grown brand repeatedly bucks the trends and outsells the bigger known international brands in our domestic market. Amongst the reasons for the brands continuing success, Tushingham have never been afraid to diversify or take bold steps to stay ahead of the pack. In the past the brand has offered an extensive line of designs aimed squarely at the U.K. rider for our conditions. But with the market demands changing drastically, Tushingham are about radically to re shuffle their program by condensing four existing ranges down into one brand new line, ‘The Bolt!’ John Carter investigates …
Words & Photos JOHN CARTER
(This feature originally appeared in the July 2014 issue of Windsurf Magazine. To read more features like this first, Print and Digital subscriptions are available. Prices include delivery globally for 10 x issues a year!)
STEALTH
A chance phone call to Dave Hackford in early January 2014 unleashed the news that Roger Tushingham was in the midst of a covert mission to the Isle of Wight to check over the finishing touches to their new sail line ‘The Bolt’. I’d already heard a few rumours that they were working on a major secret project, but armed with this latest intel, I jumped in my car and headed straight for Ken Black’s sail loft to check out the evidence first hand. Hidden off the beaten track on a road known to the locals as ‘The Undercliff’, Ken’s house is the perfect stealth HQ to carry out the last tweaks and changes to their new range away from the public eye. As I pull up the drive, Roger and Ken already have several of the very latest prototypes unrolled in the garden and are meticulously checking every detail before the new models can be put into full-scale production.
HISTORY
Rewinding way back to 1977, the idea for the Tushingham brand was first born when Roger was an aspiring dinghy racer. Enthralled by the sport throughout his child hood, Roger soon figured that the only way to become semi-professional at dinghy racing was to become a sailmaker despite a distinct lack of enthusiasm from his Yorkshire-based Careers Officer at school. At the time a friend suggested that he use the Jolly Roger skull logo, which was drawn on each sail by his own fair hand in felt tip during the early days of production. Come 1980, when windsurfing was entering its heyday and becoming a household sport, Roger was perfectly placed to roll out the cloth and send the stitches of his sewing machine in a brand new and exciting direction. With a glint in his eye, he recalls the early days when windsurfing was in its infancy “Every man and his dog was windsurfing back then, it was incredible! Windsurfing was the first new adventure sport and everybody got behind it in the mid 80s. The stuff we were making at the time was terrible. But we just didn’t know any better! We didn’t even have clamp-on booms. My first windsurfer had a wooden boom. For years after that we used to tie booms onto the mast with a piece of string! You had to develop this special knot, it was awful. You wonder why all this stuff took so long? I think it’s because we’re not that intelligent!” When Roger made the bold call to embark on his second Olympic campaign, he licensed the brand out to Bennett and Bowler to continue running the business while he was pre occupied with his training regime. A few years later, after the Olympics had passed, they realised that production of the sails needed to be moved to China because of price changes. Chris Bowler didn’t want the commitment and asked Roger if he wanted Tushingham back. Needless to say, the canny Yorkshireman saw an opportunity and the deal was done!
“ WHEN WINDSURFING BOOMED IN THE 80S IT WAS VERY SIMPLE, SO I THINK WE NEED TO MOVE BACK IN THAT DIRECTION ”
“ WHEN WINDSURFING BOOMED IN THE 80S IT WAS VERY SIMPLE, SO I THINK WE NEED TO MOVE BACK IN THAT DIRECTION ”
THE TEAM
At the same time Dave ‘Hackers’ Hackford joined the Tushingham team from NeilPryde bringing in a much-needed driving force behind the sales and marketing side of the company. When Dave heard Roger was thinking about acquiring Tushingham back from Bennett and Bowler, he was keen to become more involved in the design, marketing and sales of the equipment and called to see if they could work together. The deal was struck, they both became directors and Dave moved up from Brighton to Yorkshire to get Tushingham re-launched. Roger will be the first to admit that he’s quite laidback and Hackers’ competitive side was essential for them to grow in the market. Incidentally ’92 was the only year that NeilPryde sold more sails in the U.K. than Tushingham, so bringing Dave on board proved to be another shrewd move from the Yorkshire businessman.
The next natural step in the evolution of the brand was to enrol the services of multi-talented sail designer Ken Black in 1993-4. Ken was so busy at the time making his own brand ‘Ken Black Sails’ he barely had time to work on his real passion of design. Roger realized Ken’s talents were wasted so he brought him on board with the sole role as designer while the sails were manufactured in China. So with all three of the main members of the team using their individual talents to their best effect, Tushingham has continued to flourish over the past two decades.
Paul Simmonds joined up in the late nineties and brought on board his windsurfing skills, enthusiasm and general business and organizational skills. Now he is one of the backbones of the team alongside, Luke Green, Sam Ross, Peter Hart, Chris Murray and former British Champion John Hibbard. Now based down in ‘sunny’ Devon (although Roger will beg to differ about the ‘sunny’ bit), an important aspect for choosing their location was so that the offices are close to decent conditions. With virtually every member of the Team a passionate windsurfer, it’s important to the brand that their workforce are able to test sails and catch those epic sessions – even if it means a few late nights in the office to catch up on daily business.
DISTRIBUTION
A major reason that Tushingham have continued to grow, is their hugely efficient distribution network. Rather than sit on their laurels as a standalone sail brand, the company has diversified by becoming importers of Starboard windsurf and SUPs, Severne sails and the Red Paddle SUP brand that specializes purely in inflatable boards. The team in the warehouse is now eleven strong and, despite Britain just about clawing its way out of the depths of this almighty recession, Tushingham have proved to be one of the stronger forces in the market with a healthy market share and an efficiently run business that is all set to ride the wave of recovery.
However, all the team have taken note that the overall size of the windsurfing market has shrunk during the last decade. Roger thinks it’s become way too complicated and hard-core. “I mean, sailors own a 5.5, but they don’t have a van full of 5.5s optimised for different disciplines and conditions. If it’s 5.5 weather, you need a sail that will do-it-all to at least 95% perfection. We wanted to make the recreational sailor’s choice easier, so we’ve taken this bold step to dramatically reduce the number of models in the range”. Gone will be the Storm, the Edge freestyle range, the T4 and the Lightning, all to be replaced by the ‘Bolt’, which they aim to combine the best of the previous models into one simplified range. The smaller sizes up to 5.25 will feature four battens, then five battens up to 6.0, then six and seven battens and twin cams for the bigger sizes up to 9.4. The characteristics of the sails will change as the sizes increase and Tushingham have kept key features of their existing sweet sizes from the previous ranges and incorporated them into the new designs. All the sails will be lighter and Roger reckons you should be able to rig the whole range using three mast sizes. All sails will have an ideal mast but will also be rig-able on the mast size either side of it.
There are secondary benefits to this reduction in the sail range. It will be good for the shops with all sizes and colours being available ex-stock and, most importantly, it means Ken can focus on less sails to refine in the design stages and subsequently give each model more intense attention. Hard-core wave sailors will be glad to hear the popular Rock five batten wave sail range will remain in production while the new small sizes of the ‘Bolt’ range will be lighter and more freeride orientated. Tushingham are not expecting their market to rush down to the local windsurfing shop and buy a full set of their new sails but the new system should make it much easier to fill the gaps in the quiver. Rather than further complicate the market, this bold move is to make more all-round sails that cater adequately for the majority of the British market. The new sail line will also be incorporating new high tech materials with designs that have evolved and benefited from Tushingham’s 20 years of experience in the business. Sam Ross, Paul Simmons, Dave Hackford and Luke Green have all been involved in the testing of the new range and full-scale production is already underway.
COMPARISON
As Roger and Ken meticulously work their way through the sails, rigging and checking every detail in the process, he comments to me that he likes to compare the Tushingham in car terms as the VW in the market. “VWs are superb quality and do exactly what they say on the tin. We feel Tushingham do a solid job for the windsurfer on the street – just like a VW!” Utilizing the talents of world-class designer Ken Black, Roger has no qualms that they can match the performance and quality of any other brand in the market. He’s not ashamed to admit that Tushingham are not a Ho’okipa or World Cup race brand, but in the past that has proved an advantage, because Tushingham are more connected with recreational sailors. Emphasising this fact he adds “Normal windsurfers don’t need a World Cup race sail. We tried to rig one up the other day and really struggled, believe me – and we know what we’re doing! Our aim is to make sails that are easy to use, durable, good value, well balanced and with a wide range of use. When windsurfing boomed in the 80s it was very simple, so I think we need to move back in that direction.” By late afternoon the last details have been checked over, Roger has to rush off and catch the next ferry, he’s headed to Warwickshire to pick up a new engine for his motor bike – but that’s a whole other story …
KEN BLACK
I hang around to chew the fat with Ken for a while and pick his brains about the technical side of the sails. With over thirty years’ experience in sail design, working contently behind the scenes, Ken still maintains his logical approach and dedicated work ethic. “This is not like a normal sail range. The new line is aimed at a wide-sector of uses and we’ve introduced new lighter materials, new head rings and new pulleys to help increase performance. The small sails have to cover quite a wide wind range from learners to a howling gale. We’ve gone for four battens below 5.5 so they’re emphasising lightweight and manoeuvrability. We tested the 5.5 extensively and our riders reckon the new Bolt delivers pretty much the same performance level of all of our previous 5.5s from the outgoing ranges. We have three sails with five battens up to 6.0, then 6.5 upwards we go to six battens with a different configuration for a more slalom-type speed feel. They’re all versatile, easy to rig and easy to use, plus they’ll fit a lot of masts too. It helps me having fewer sails to design, so I can spend more time on each sail, I can try and make each one perfect! I just do my bit and make the sails as good as they can be. Of course we still have a bulletproof Rock for the hard core wave guys, the X15 race sail and the race board sail for longboards”.
THE FUTURE
It will be interesting to see how consumers will react to Tushingham’s bold reaction to the way the market is evolving. Surviving solely as a sail brand was only sustainable for so long in the windsurfing retail sector as the market battled through the last recession. By branching out into the distribution leg of the business, Tushingham showed how they can adapt and remain buoyant through difficult times. Now with ‘The Bolt’ they’re hoping this latest step will keep windsurfing sails simple for both the shops and the consumers, allowing them to remain one of the ‘Rocks’ of UK windsurfing for many more years to come! JC
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