Will We Ever Run Out of Sails?
It's no secret that a crucial part of our supply chain is sail acquisition. Without sails, there would be no Sea Bags! As we have grown, it has become imperative that we build a team of sailing enthusiasts who are dedicated to keeping sails out of the landfill. Have you ever wondered how we collect all of our sails? Meet the team behind the scenes.
10/27/22
The Road to Acquiring Sails
Carrie Mack, Vice President of Sail Acquisition
Our Sail Acquisition team is led by Carrie Mack, one of Sea Bags' first employees and an expert in sail material and sail acquisition. Carrie has worked at Sea Bags for over 15 years and is one of our longest tenured employees, second to our Co-Founder, President, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Beth Greenlaw. Carrie started her career at Sea Bags in the sewing room. With the majority of our supply chain being comprised of acquiring used sails, Beth knew that we needed someone managing sail acquisition full time, and Carrie was pegged for the role. As she started building our sail acquisition program, sailors were hesitant to hand over their well-loved sails. Carrie added that "while a lot of folks recycled, this was a relatively new concept. Sailors are generally thrifty and are reluctant to part with something that they might be able to reuse and/or repurpose."
What ended up changing these sailors' minds was the finished Sea Bags product. Carrie would bring along a few bags to lofts and yacht clubs and show them what their old sails could look like if they recycled them with us. They were blown away. Not only with the product, but also with how much Carrie knew about sailing. She gained her sailing knowledge while cruising recreationally as a way to process her tour serving our country in Iraq. Showing sailors the craftsmanship of the product we were producing from retired sails made it a lot easier for them to take the leap of faith and hand theirs over. Since those early days, she has offered many sailors a sustainable option for repurposing their retired sails.
Over the years Carrie built incredible relationships with these sailors, and word of mouth began to spread. They would tell their friends, yacht clubs, and sail lofts who soon came to rely on us to pick up their retired sails. Our sail traders are an important part of our supply chain, and we see them as part of our family. To date, Carrie's favorite sail trade was from the schooner "Roseway" in Camden, ME. She loves getting sails made of fabrics that are no longer produced. This boat has a set of tanbark canvas sails, something she has only seen a few times in her career.
Meet the Team
After realizing that there were more sails out there than Carrie could get alone, she expanded the Sail Acquisition team in November of 2021. Covering the entire United States, Carrie's team is comprised of: Sophie, Taylor, Madeline, and Ben.
Photo by Wilbur Keyworth- Will Keyworth Photography
Sophie Podlich, Sail Acquisition Manager - Mid-Atlantic
Sophie covers Sail Acquisition in the Mid-Atlantic. She started sailing with her parents on their J24, Harold and the Purple Crayon, when she was just ten days old, "my mom claims she had never gotten so much room from other boats racing than when she had a newborn in a lifejacket and car seat, in her boat." She grew up and still resides in the sailing capital of the United States, Annapolis, Maryland. She attended the University of Rhode Island and sailed on their offshore sailing team. She has coached at Eastport Yacht Club, Annapolis Yacht Club, and the United States Naval Academy. Now, she gets out racing as much as she can with friends and family on weeknights and weekends. Sophie has helped sail traders recycle a lot of sentimental sails during her time here, "I was lucky to acquire sails from my friends' days in Optis on the world circuit 10 years ago and a jib from i420 Worlds in Italy in the 1980's. And I always love the sails I get from junior sailing programs. These are at the top of the list for favorite sail trades right now."
Taylor Marshall, Sail Acquisition Manager - Northeast
Taylor handles sail acquisition in the Northeast. She grew up in Sandwich Cape Cod, MA and started sailing when she was younger as a way to keep up with her cool older sibling. She continued to sail for fun as a kid and got into it more seriously in high school where she became the captain of her sailing team. This led her to sail in the 420 division of the Figawi, a world renowned race by sailors and non-sailors alike. She then went on to coach sailing and direct a sailing program here in Maine. "One set of sails that were very memorable were from the Isaac H. Evans schooner up in Boothbay Harbor, ME. We were able to use the boat's original sails to make some great sea sacks." Taylor acquired these sails just after joining the Sea Bags Crew and will never forget the hours it took for four adults to load 400+ pounds of sails into the van.
Madeline Lark, Sail Acquisition Manager - Midwest
Madeline is our newest team member and serves the Midwest Region of the United States. She grew up in Monroe, Michigan which is situated right on Lake Erie. Like Sophie, Madeline was also an infant sailor. She was strapped into her parents C&C 39 when she was only a month old and has been sailing and racing ever since. Sailing roots run deep on both sides of her family for over three generations, and Madeline is happy to carry on the tradition. She grew up racing in juniors and attended a college with a great sailing program. She is now a part of multiple big boat racing teams and a very active member of her home yacht club. Madeline's journey gathering sails has just begun and she thinks her favorite stories are yet to be discovered. "Every sail has a story and I love hearing about them!"
Ben Hayden, Sail Acquisition Manager
Ben is stationed in our South Portland warehouse and manages sail trades from our stores and any state that isn't covered by our other managers. Ben was born in Salem, Massachusetts to a professional sailor and sailmaker…so he was going to be a sailor whether he liked it or not (and thankfully, he did). Once he realized how much freedom sailing gave him, he fell in love with exploring islands around harbors. One of his greatest sailing achievements was captaining a 26 day trip from Salem Harbor, MA to Isle au Haut, ME and back. It was all filmed and premiered on Outside TV as a 20-minute documentary highlighting sustainable businesses along the Maine coast. When asked about one of his favorite memories at Sea Bags, Ben shared, "I found a sailmaker's patch from my dad's old sail making company, and I'm sure that I've also taken in numerous HOOD sails that he designed."
Preserving Memories
When we talked to the team about their favorite part of the job, the resounding response was that they loved getting to know the stories behind each sail they gather and helping our sail trade customers create a memory that will last a lifetime. Often our sail traders will bring us sails from their first sailboat, or from a trip that took them great distances and created incredible memories. While the sails are no longer usable to them, they know that they can be to us, and they have a whole new life to live with Sea Bags customers.
Sail Acquisition in Numbers
The Sail Acquisition Team and 2,000 sail traders saved a total of 7,938 sails from the landfill in 2021. We've collected sails from 46 different states, including both Hawaii and Alaska. We have yet to acquire sails from Idaho, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. If you have a sail from one of these states – we want it!
So, will we ever run out of sails?
Our very own, Carrie Mack, said it best: "No. There is a love of sailing that spans generations old and young, and those that have yet to come. As long as there are sailors, we'll never run out of sails."
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