Undoubtedly the hottest sailor in the country at the moment, Mark Reynolds though is hardly an overnight sensation.  He has steadily and surely built his skills for over 25 years to the unprecedented crescendo that he delivered for the year 2000.  To wit:  winning the US Olympic Trials, Star World Championship, Kiel Week, Olympics in Sydney, and IASF/Sperry World Sailor of the Year.  Most people couldn’t dream of accomplishing results like these in a lifetime, let alone in one-year!

For 2001 he’s off to another astronomical year, including a 2^nd at Key West Race Week in the brutal Farr 40 Class; 1^st at the US Admiral’s Cup Trials again in the Farr 40 Class (with owner Philippe Kahn); and on Feb 8th he was named the Rolex Sailor of the Year.  These accomplishments, though obviously owed to real talent, are the product of relentless dedication to his craft.  It is his passion and his livelihood.

The owner of the Quantum sail loft in San Diego and a man, at age 45, about to embark on his first offshore race (the 1,125 mile Marina Del Rey to Puerto Vallarta Race) aboard yet another of Philippe Kahn’s growing stable of boats, this the Andrews turbo-sled.

Though amazingly busy, we managed to grab a few minutes from Mark’s schedule. Not even Reynolds can say no to the editorial clout of Sailing Anarchy.

You have recently changed your loft affiliation from SOBSTAD to QUANTUM.  What are your thoughts on the future of the sail making business?

I joined the Quantum Sail Design Group at the beginning of last year.  It’s probably the only new sailmaking group in quite awhile.  It was started about 4 years ago and it’s become the #2 sailmaker in that short time.  I think that success has been a result of being very quality conscious, these guys are committed to being the best, and just plain hard work.

There are more young guys involved at all levels of QSDG and they are motivated, smart, and aggressive.  They are guys that had a feeling that there was a better way to do it and got together to give it a shot.  There is no one guy that owns the whole deal, these are younger entrepreneurs.  They are all growing their own businesses from the ground up.

This is quite different than North, which has grown (at least in the US) through buying out their competitors or offering higher salaries to lure new people from other sailmakers.  I know first hand, they approached me 1 year ago and just tried to hire away one of my top guys.  With QSDG it’s nice to be associated with a group of guys that I can trade experience with and have input into the growth of the company.

Quantum has much more presence at the top end of the market than Sobstad did which is where I can best utilize my talents.  QSDG started with a little more emphasis in the big boat market and are doing very well there, they will have close to 20% of the fleet at Key West Race Week this year but I will be able to really help in the smaller One Design market.

So Quantum is basically a collection of individual lofts that share technology and co-op advertising?

Yeah, all the lofts are individually owned but it’s is a pretty close group when it comes to R&D, Marketing, Management, etc.  The group is committed to making all the lofts as good as they can be.  We just had an awesome annual meeting where everyone learned tons.

Quantum, and when Quantum was Sobstad, is/was known for building perhaps the best paneled sails in the business.  With the evolution of the 3DL sailmaking process can Quantum continue to build panels, or are we likely to see new technology from you guys?

Most of the guys in the Quantum Sail Design Group came from Sobstad so we know a lot about string type sails like Sobstad’s Genesis and 3DL sails and of course paneled sails.  We realize the advantages and disadvantages of each method and we are putting more money back into R&D as a percent of our sales than probably any other sailmaker.

Quantum’s goal is to build the best sails on the market bar none.  Right now we know that we can get more strength for a given weight from paneled sails, but paneled sails are labor intensive, and so we will continue to work on new ideas to bring more value to our customers.

We understand that the lawsuit against North Sails by Peter Conrad of Sobstad has sent a tremor through North.  What do you think the most likely outcome of the litigation will be?  How will the sailing / sailmaking community be affected if North loses?

I was with Peter Conrad for 18 years so I know first hand what he has had to go through and was happy to see him win the lawsuit and I hope North’s appeal is unsuccessful.  It’s like a protest hearing though, you never know for sure what will happen.  He certainly deserves to come out on top, he came up with a unique idea and made it work though ingenuity and hard work.

North used to be the innovator when Lowell was around but they became better and better at the marketing end of things and bought the 3DL process because they knew that Peter was on to something and they needed a unique product.  They first tried to overpower Peter by arguing that his patent wasn’t valid and when that didn’t work they just went full speed ahead with a product that was designed around his. They had the money to make it work.

I think he should have won willful infringement against North and 3 times the damages.  North is now trying to do the same thing again with their new 3DLx.  Instead of running fibers from corner to corner they are radiating from the corners and get close to the same effect since the fibers overlap and glue to each other at some point.  They are no longer continuous from corner to corner and there is clearly some wasted fiber as it gets to the far edge.  Peter is of course suing them on that product as well but if they are able to first convince the Judge that it’s different enough they will probably be able to convince the customers that it’s the next new thing.  So there are quite a few different outcomes.

If they are prevented from making the 3DL and their variations they have enough backing to stay in business.  It will be a little more difficult for their marketing department to differentiate their product from others but they will still be a fierce competitor in the market.  Regardless of what happens Peter doesn’t have a patent in all countries so they will still be able to make the product for some of the sailing market and Peter’s patent expires in about 4 years.

Have you had the opportunity to run your Star boat sail shapes through any CFD or wind tunnel testing?  With such incremental changes to sail design, how do you verify performance gains/losses?

Although I have not used the wind tunnel and CFD for the Star (yet) I’ve talked quite a bit over the last year to people that do both CFD and wind tunnel testing.  At Quantum we have been fortunate to have people on the cutting edge of these areas working for us.

It’s a bit expensive at this point for a Star program, we are using it for our larger sails.  In the Star you also have the advantage of sails that are fairly inexpensive to build and re-cut and plenty of boats to test against so the full scale testing is pretty easy to do and we do a lot of it.  I have sailed thousands of miles upwind over the years sail testing.

The Star can be categorized as a semi-displacement, mainly “Upwind” boat.  Have you had any opportunities to sail some of the more modern Skiff-type boats?  What do you think about the appeal of sheer velocity in bringing more participants and spectators into sailing?

With it’s flat bottom the Star blasts down a reach and waves pretty good in a breeze.  I have sailed a 49er and would love to sail on a 18 foot skiff.  There’s no question they are exciting boats to sail and with the 18 foot skiff, design and build.  It’s too bad we don’t have the skiffs in California.

I really love to windsurf as well and these boats are probably closer to windsurfing than Star sailing.  Both skiff sailing and windsurfing have attracted more spectators but I’m not sure that they are going to make a big dent in the popularity of sailing, they are too difficult to sail.

You have recently been getting more involved with big boat sailing.  It seems that you are one of the successful Olympians who has had comparatively little involvement in this arena.  What projects will you be involved with in the coming year?

I’ve been more interested in Olympic and small boat sailing over the years and my business is primarily making small boat sails, mainly Star sails, so there has not always been the time or opportunity to sail big boats.  I have tried to fit in a few big boat regattas over the years and decided that 2001 looked like a good year to try to fit in a bit more while I continue to sail the Star.  Racing small boats and making sails for them is a lot of fun but it’s tough to make a living doing that.

With Farr 40 fleets now of over 30 boats it looked like really exciting racing and I figured that my tactical training in the smaller boats with big fleets could be really well utilized there.  I was recently fortunate to be able to hook up with a really good group of sailors on the Farr 40 Pegasus.  The helmsman and owner, Philippe Kahn, although just starting to race less than 2 years ago, is a very good helmsman and wants to continue getting better so this is a good chance to participate in a winning program and pass some of my knowledge to him.  As I’ve moved up to a larger boat he has been moving the other direction and now is sailing the Mumm 30 and just got into the Melges 24 class.  He realizes that smaller boats can teach him even more.  With the Team Pegasus (www.pegasus.com) fleet growing there should be plenty of interesting sailing to do with them.

There is a new R/P Maxi sled in the works for Team Pegasus, isn’t there?  Will you be doing any of the long distance stuff with them (Transpac, etc)?

The latest R/P 75 sled is being built down in Australia right now and will be up here in the spring.  I’d love to go for a burn in a good breeze on that boat.  Could be a lot of fun to drop into a wave driving a 75 footer.  It would be nice to get a chance to do some distance races on the boat, hopefully I’ll get the chance.

You’ve done some Mumm 30, ID 35 and now Farr 40 One-Design sailing.  Are these and others like them the future and savior of big boat sailing?  If so, what does Joe PHRF do about it? Should he plunk down $350,000 to get a Farr 40?

The big boat One Designs are sure doing well.  Look at Key West Race Week, they are getting more boats than ever before and it’s almost all One Designs.  The Admirals Cup is now all One Design.  It’s the end of the arms race.  There are no rating discussions.  It’s all boat for boat so you know where you finish and there are few excuses in the bar afterward except for the bonehead move you made at the leeward gate.

Let the real development happen in the Americas Cup, The Race and the Open classes.  At least the hand me downs that “Joe PHRF” often ends up with will have fewer tortured hulls designed for some rating rule.  There are also less “high end”, more cruising oriented one design boats that he can sail if he wants.

Have you had any offers to become involved in the Americas Cup?  Does it interest you at all?

With my own business to run it would be difficult to get involved in the Americas Cup and keep my business going.  The Americas Cup would be

 very interesting to do, I’ve never pursued it and have never got an offer either.

The sailing is challenging and the tech side would be maybe even more up my alley.  I’ve always been interested in working to make boats go faster since I was a kid making my own Sabot.  I worked for Dennis Conner on his Star’s and Tempest and built the ultimate Flying Dutchman for the boycotted 1980 Olympics.  I’ve always tried to have the fastest boats and learned so much from Conner, North, Buchan, Duplin and others who were all very good at making the boat go faster.

The AC would be a good opportunity to do some cool stuff but I really enjoy doing what I’m currently doing.  It’s too bad that there isn’t just more time in the day.

But if someone called you next week and had a satchel full of currency would you consider it?

Sure, I’d consider it, but all of the pieces of the puzzle would have to fit together regardless of the money.  How much money can fit in a satchel anyway?

Ed.:      Officially, a satchel can hold a shitload of cash.

Now that the America’s Cup has reverted back to being a wealthy man’s game, and given that sailing has not done well on television, will it continue to be a limited appeal, limited access sport? And if so, are there ways that haven’t been tried to broaden it’s reach?

It’s interesting to see how many of the program’s are now financed entirely by wealthy individuals this time around.  I know from watching Dennis, Paul Cayard and others how much time they had to spend in the board rooms raising money instead of being out on the water.  It’s nice not to have to worry about where the next check will come from.

Who knows, maybe this cup will be so exciting that it will generate more interest that will pull more sponsorship into the following event.  I’m not the one to ask for ideas for broadening the appeal of sailing.  I have seen some changes to Olympic sailing over the 4 Olympics that I have sailed.  We’ve used trapezoids and shorter courses more designed for TV and spectators and I don’t think it’s made much of a difference. Maybe it’s just a sport for the competitors, I don’t really see anything wrong with that.

We are looking into having more of a Formula 1 type of circuit in the Star class where the boats will travel from event to event in a bit more organized fashion with more sponsorship and publicity connected to it.  This might be more interesting.

Who do you think is the best sailor in the world right now, and why?  It’s OK to say Mark Reynolds.

It’s pretty unfair to give someone that title since sailing is a pretty diverse sport and sailors are probably specializing a little more these days than in the past. There are so many good guys, it’s a long long list, but it wouldn’t even be fair to put them all in the same boat and see who comes out on top.

I’ve done some windsurfing but I would never beat Dunkerbeck or Sieber in their boats.  I’ve specialized in Star boat sailing with Magnus Liljedahl and that’s no doubt the reason we has such a good year in 2000.

OK, let’s put it this way.  If you were given the task of putting together a crew for sailing in a competitive keelboat fleet, who would you build your team around?

There’s a bunch of guys that I could name for every position that together could make a great team but then they could also be beat the following weekend by my second dream team.  Sailing is a tough sport to be the best every weekend, just about impossible plus there just is no Paul Elvstrom these days.

Ed.:      OK Mr Hot Shot Gold Medal Boy.  We’ve given you TWO opportunities to name one of the Sailing Anarchists as the World’s Best Sailor and you’ve missed on both counts.  Next time take the hint!

Are there any particular boats that you look at and think, “I’d like to be sailing one of those.”?

Yeah, a lot of boats but unfortunately I just don’t have the time!

Ed.:  The following question was gleaned from subsequent correspondence with MR.  We’ll be following up on this potentially colorful answer with SuperMark sometime soon.

Would you be interested in e-mailing us daily reports from Pegasus during the PV race?  Not so much position reports, but more of how much fun you're having (or not); what's happening on board; just a quick note to say here's what's happening.  Also might be interesting to hear how you like your first offshore race!

I’m not sure about doing the email.  Why don’t I take your address and if it works out I’ll send something but lets not plan on it.  For all I know I could be hanging over the side blowing chow the whole time!