Back home again in Indiana, for a tour of Sailrite's facility.
Imagine my surprise when one day last summer while sitting at my desk in Annapolis I clicked to the website of longtime SpinSheet advertiser, Sailrite, for some background information and learned that since its inception the company has been based in a small town in Indiana, less than a two-hour drive from my hometown. While its location may be somewhat remote, the business is known by sailors world-wide for its Ultrafeed sewing machine, sail-making kits, DIY boat projects, and instructional videos, and it has earned a loyal following.
This year, after celebrating July 4 with my Hoosier family, my husband and I started our return trip to Annapolis by driving 90 miles in the wrong direction to reach Sailrite’s 100,000-square foot facility on the edge of Columbia City, IN. We knew we’d arrived when we spotted among the cornfields a keelboat looking oddly out of place sitting on the edge of a parking lot for a huge building. The boat sported a new bimini and dodger, perfectly fitted sail covers, and a matching hatch canopy. A wooden platform had been erected on one side for creating and filming some of Sailrite’s unique DIY videos.
Marketing director Zach Grant greeted us warmly and gave us a full tour. Sailrite is a family business, started in 1969 by Zach’s grandfather, Jim Grant. Today the company is led by Zach’s parents, Matt and Hallie, and employs about 100 people, including several members of the Grant family. Zach, like me, attended Indiana University. Though we graduated decades apart, we both had been members of IU’s ‘sailing team,’ a small, low-key club sport. During Zach’s stint his grandfather (Sailrite’s founder) helped organize and coach the group.
The company’s roots go back to the 1960s when Jim Grant needed a sail post haste for a national race, and no sailmaker could deliver one in time. Jim made his own and did well in the competition. Eventually he began to author books on DIY sailmaking and later founded Sailrite. The next generation continued to innovate, designing the Ultrafeed machine, leveraging the internet and YouTube, and expanding from sailboats to RVs, household projects, leatherwork, and more.
Zach told us, “Growing up, when my grandfather would take us sailing, if something needed to be fixed, repaired, or cleaned up on the boat, helping out was always part of the experience. We never got to go home without doing those kinds of things.”
The DIY mindset and focus on innovative resourcefulness are still part of the company’s culture. In the conference room a white board with drawings hangs on the wall and an ongoing design project sits on the oblong table. Engineering and problem-solving seem to be baked into the company culture. Zach explained that nearly every Sailrite employee has some type of hobby project outside of work, and employees regularly seek advice from one another for projects both at work and at home. At this point, readers familiar with Indiana may be wondering if any Purdue graduates are onboard. The answer is no (insert wink).
Sailrite’s immense and incredibly clean building is divided into separate workspaces for the many different operations that take place inside. The company stocks everything they sell, and among its highly organized inventory we saw rows of fabric by the bolt, stacks of foam cushioning, shelves with millions of small hardware pieces, piping, line, and other materials.
You couldn’t miss the large sail loft-style tables used for designing custom sails. In an interior room a group of employees was busy customizing, tuning, and testing some of Sailrite’s popular sewing machines, a focal point of the business.
Specialized machines, created onsite or manufactured to order, keep the business running as efficiently as possible. We particularly enjoyed seeing the process used to bend bimini support rods to exact specifications. Nearby we were shown newer, high-tech spaces for digital marketing and web development, as well as multiple studios for video and photography.
Before heading back to Chesapeake country, we were invited to climb the wooden platform on the edge of the parking lot and take a closer look at the canvas projects on the boat in the lot. From our perch, Zach explained that by first doing the projects themselves for filming purposes, they have the opportunity to find any pitfalls, work with their suppliers to adjust accordingly, and be well positioned to respond to customer questions.
Thank you, Zach and Sailrite for a fascinating visit. We talked about it all the way across Ohio!
by Beth Crabtree
Learn more at sailrite.com.
