Southern Sails

Southern Sails Southern Sails is a sailmaking service based in Nelson, New Zealand. We specialise in new sails, sai

Southern Sails was established in Nelson in 2015 by Sailmaker Gareth Sim who has 18 years of sail making experience ranging from dinghy sails, cruising sails to high performance race sails. He has competed in 4 different Americas Cup campaigns as a sail maker. He was successful in winning 3 out of 4 campaigns; once with Alinghi and twice with Oracle Team USA. Gareth has developed many other skills

over the years and including upholstery, marine trimming and canvas. He has an eye for attention to detail, uses the best in materials and stands by his work. Southern Sails also work with Tony Harold, who is a well known sail designer with many years of experience. You can trust that Southern Sails produces good quality and reliable work.

Always great to work with Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures on their sails. Sails will be set for another great season of c...
13/09/2024

Always great to work with Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures on their sails. Sails will be set for another great season of chartering with them! Enjoy guys! ⛵️☀️

Here’s a couple of new sails Southern Sails has just fitted to an Outremer 49’. What a great day out on the water with a...
02/02/2020

Here’s a couple of new sails Southern Sails has just fitted to an Outremer 49’. What a great day out on the water with awesome clients! Everything worked perfectly, and they are very happy with the finished product. Bau and Karin have big plans of sailing around the Pacific Islands, and many more journeys with their recently purchased catamaran. It has been a pleasure working with them and manufacturing a new A-3 and Code-0 ⛵️⛵️⛵️

There are some jobs that are a challenge. Martin Holmes - our customer from Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures asked me toda...
28/07/2018

There are some jobs that are a challenge. Martin Holmes - our customer from Abel Tasman Sailing Adventures asked me today during the installation if I enjoyed building this sail for his Leopard 46. My response was “Yes I did! I enjoy the challenge”. This sail was way over max capacity for our workshop, and it seemed so daunting at the start, but it just goes to show what can be achieved when you have the determination and motivation to get the job done. I’ve been involved in 4 America’s Cup campaigns as a sailmaker, won it three times along the way which was satisfying, but seeing your own work on a yacht like this one is also extremely satisfying. Of course I couldn’t do this on my own and I would like to thank Robyn Pearl and Tony Harold for their huge efforts to make it happen. It’s great to have a good team that take pride in their work. Thanks to Jane-Marie and Martin Holmes for choosing us to get it done 👍

It’s been another busy winter at Southern Sails! We build great sails but that’s not the only things we do. Southern Sai...
27/07/2018

It’s been another busy winter at Southern Sails! We build great sails but that’s not the only things we do. Southern Sails also specializes in marine upholstery and marine trimming. There’s even a few pictures of a Triumph motorcycle seat and a shade sail here too. There’s nothing we won’t do!

It's been a busy winter at Southern Sails, and now rolling into some warmer sailing conditions, I'm sure we are all look...
06/09/2017

It's been a busy winter at Southern Sails, and now rolling into some warmer sailing conditions, I'm sure we are all looking forward to getting more time on the water!

I would like to thank Robyn Pearl Holmes "Pirate Pearl" for all of her help. Also Mitch Hewson for his handy work!

Here's some of the work we have been producing over the winter months.

I've been a bit quiet on Facebook, but it's been a busy summer and a busy start to winter. New sails, upholstery and man...
08/05/2017

I've been a bit quiet on Facebook, but it's been a busy summer and a busy start to winter. New sails, upholstery and many more projects. Here are some photos of what's been happening..

Southern Sails has been busy manufacturing spray dodgers during the winter. The grey one was for a customer in Cable Bay...
18/09/2016

Southern Sails has been busy manufacturing spray dodgers during the winter. The grey one was for a customer in Cable Bay who keeps his boat on his property next to the estuary. We made an exact mockup of the boat so we could construct the frames and canopy at the sail loft.

We use good quality canvas, extruded clear PVC and PTFE (teflon) sewing thread for all of our work like this. PTFE thread has a lifetime warranty and is virtually unaffected by the harsh UV conditions in New Zealand.

This is a new Stack Pack we made for a local Nelson customer. We have used Weathermax 80 from Contender for this job and...
17/04/2016

This is a new Stack Pack we made for a local Nelson customer. We have used Weathermax 80 from Contender for this job and really pleased with the result... It looks very tidy and stands out in the marina.

Nigel Shelley was the winner of our $300 gift voucher at last years Aviemore Classic Regatta which we sponsored. He chos...
14/04/2016

Nigel Shelley was the winner of our $300 gift voucher at last years Aviemore Classic Regatta which we sponsored. He chose to put it towards a new cover for his Noelex 22. We look forward to getting involved again at this years regatta!

Cutting this second hand sail up and putting it back together to fit a local customers boat as a  #3 jib. This sail is s...
13/04/2016

Cutting this second hand sail up and putting it back together to fit a local customers boat as a #3 jib. This sail is still in good nick and the perfect sail to re-create for another boat with a bit of thinking, cutting and stitching. I'm sure it'll work out great for the customer.

Checking the seams are tidy on this Noelex 25 spinnaker. It's always nice working with new Contender Superkote sail clot...
13/04/2016

Checking the seams are tidy on this Noelex 25 spinnaker. It's always nice working with new Contender Superkote sail cloth. The seams all look pretty smooth to me!

Address

64 Wolfe Street, Brittania Heights
Nelson
7010

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+6421422662

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