A Little History
After serving his apprenticeship working for Hood sails, Jim Lidgard started his own sail loft
in 1973 continuing the family tradition of boat building and sail making.
In the 30 years at the helm, Jim grew the business to the highest of levels, making sails for
the likes of Dennis Conner, Chris Dickson, Sir Peter Blake and many other Americas Cup
and round the world campaigns.
The only time NZ has won and retained the America's Cup it was using Lidgard Sails.
LIDGARD SAILS SOON BECAME ONE OF THE BIGGEST MOST RECOGNISED SAIL MAKING COMPANIES IN THE WORLD.
During that period legends of the sailing worls such as Sir Peter Blake, Dennis Conner and Chirs Dixon
made their names off the back of the sails Lidgard provided.
Some years ago Jim’s passed away leaving behind a wealth of sail making talent and intellectual property which has since been passed on
to one of his apprentices Grant Ewing, who has taken over the business and continued in Jim’s footsteps.
The Present
Since then Lidgard has taken on a wide variety projects both big and small around the world and has grown it's reputation for not only race winning sails but for QUALITY sails that are durable and go the distance.
The prestige and global awareness that such campaigns brought Lidgard Sails brought with it
clients such the Shenandoah (165ft), Soverign (121ft), Xtra Beat (112ft), Arryan (112ft), Mirrabella 1 (130ft),
Mirrabella 3 (130ft), Philanderer (130ft), Hetairos (145ft) ) and Windstar (440ft) and more recently Adix (200ft)
We live and die by our moto of 'Good Fellows, Great Sails'. When dealing with us you can expect exceptional service and a great end product