P&B bring Scorpion building in house

P&B bring their Scorpion building in-house © P&B

P&B bring their Scorpion building in-house © P&B

P&B bring their Scorpion building in-house © P&B

P&B as we know, have for nearly 25 years consistently produced championship winning sails with over 30 National and International championship wins in 2012 alone and a similar number in 2013 alongside numerous open meeting and area wins.

Many of our customers have been with P&B since it formed from what was originally Storrar & Bax. They have seen the evolution and organic growth of the company, from its start as a North East based UK sailmakers to what is effectively now a worldwide operation with all sails still made and designed in the UK.

Alongside this P&B also operate what is effectively a one stop shop for all sailing and dinghy needs including a fully stocked chandlery and clothing area for both yacht and dinghy sailors from all major brands. Alongside this is a full service boats area that includes repairs to all types of surfaces be it wood, GRP, FRP and Carbon and the fit out of brand new boats in over 10 classes.

As part of this continual growth some of you will have noticed that P&B opened a new branch at Fareham, Southampton (J9,M27) in July 2013. This new branch was set up as a repair and boat specialist centre (alongside chandlery etc.) With internationally renowned sailor Ben McGrane heading it up we were also very fortunate to put in place a true boat building industry specialist in Darren Maple.

Darren, a qualified shipwright has been working with the team in Fareham for the past 12 months, he has over 20 years’ experience building in wood, GRP and carbon with career highlights including the complete restoration of XOD, Lass, winner of Cowes for the second time in 2013 and one off builds in the I14 class. He has also worked on the build of the Volvo Ocean 65 boats over the past decade and moulded various, boats, foils and components. His skill set and attention to detail sets him at the highest level and with his input we expect to produce excellent boats consistently.

We have also employed a team to work under and with Darren. This team has strong experience in building dinghies and layup from the likes of Winder boats.

So for us here at P&B it has been a natural movement into the building of certain dinghy classes.

P&B have been involved in the Scorpion class for 25 years and since 2010 the P&B Scorpion dinghy has been built by Boatyard at Beer. It is now time to move this in house and yesterday we collected the moulds from Boatyard at Beer to transport them back to P&B South to begin this process.

Darren’s will oversee this. His remit is not to change the Scorpion moulds or try to revolutionise what is already a wonderful boat but to bring his attention to detail and skills to perfecting the mould and continuing to produce high standard Scorpions. P&B also have highly experienced Scorpion sailors in house with multiple national champions Dave Wade and more recently Oli Wells on hand to lend assistance and have a strong pedigree of fitting this class out with success in 8 out of the last 10 national championships.

The first P&B built Scorpion will be on the water towards the back end of this season and will be thoroughly trialled and tested by P&B Race team member Oli Wells (amongst others) Oli will be at Datchet Water this weekend for the Scorpion Inland championships, sailing Scorpion 2033 and happy to answer any questions about this move.

Or alternatively call Ian or Oli on 01604 592808.

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