“With Highland Fling 18, we have looked to create a high-performance racer that allows an older owner to enjoy high speeds and excitement. The collaboration between Southern Spars, North Sails, VPLP and the Fling Racing team has made for what promises to be a very exciting new generation of yacht that will extend an owner’s racing enjoyment and comfort for many years.”

“The design process, through close collaboration with our sister company North Sails, was highly rewarding. We were able to really dive into the details of how the rig would influence the sail shape and performance across the entire wind range. There was plenty of focus on the load split between the luff of the sail and the headstays, to ensure we could take full advantage of North Sails’ Helix structured luff technology.”

“Highland Fling 18 has been an amazing project for North Sails and Southern Spars. The initial phase of the project was developed with JB Braun, Head of Design, North Sails. The collaboration with the owner’s team, VPLP Design, North Sails, and Southern Spars meant that a design was developed that was in line with the client’s expectations, with extraordinary attention to detail and a focus on performance. Once the sail shapes and mast profiles were determined, we were able a to build a comprehensive wardrobe of sails to cover the required performance, relying on Helix structured luff technology to give the sails the range required to keep the number of sails to a minimum, while covering the full spectrum of wind speeds and angles. This needed to be matched with the Southern Spars mast and boom setup to make sure we could achieve the required articulation and load. The collaboration between our group of companies enabled us deliver and a make the full sail trials on the spar, deck gear and sail package in less than a week. This was only possible with the vision and diligence of the owner and the Highland Fling team, who did an amazing job of keeping the project on track at all times.”