Seemingly every week, there’s a newspaper report or social media post about Sailing Yacht A. She’s been in Gibraltar in recent weeks undergoing final testing. Among the gear the super-size superyacht should be putting to the test: her sails. Doyle Sailmakers not only delivered them, it documented the entire creation process.
Doyle Sailmakers actually delivered the three custom-made sails, crafted in its Massachusetts loft, last year. Sailing Yacht A briefly hoisted at least one while still being finished at Nobiskrug. Just this week, however, Doyle decided to give the public an inside look at how it all came about.
The video is indeed a great inside look, but it omits some facts a lot of people want to know: the sail dimensions. Thankfully, however, we can get some helpful hints from other publicly available details.
The best source so far is UK-based Magma Structures, which made the masts. It revealed a while ago that the main mast of Sailing Yacht A is more than 328 feet (100 meters) tall. Furthermore, it revealed that the sail area exceeds the size of “a standard-sized football pitch.”
To figure out those dimensions, we turned to the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rules. There’s actually not a sole standard. Instead, FIFA allows variations. So, for international matches, the length needs to be between 100 and 110 meters. Similarly, the width needs to be 64 to 75 meters. Those equate a total of 6,400 square meters on the small end and 8,250 square meters on the high end. Therefore, in square footage, the figures are 68,889 square feet for a “small” football pitch and 88,802 square feet for the largest one.
Keep those variations in mind as you watch this time-lapse look. Be sure to pay close attention when the Doyle Sailmakers staff stretches out one (just one!) sail in its loft. Do the same when the team starts gathering other sails in folds that are easily two people wide.
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