When Jim Cullen started as a sailmaker in 1971, his workshop looked much the same as sail lofts had 100 years before.

The sailcloth was laid out, cut and sewn on a bare, often–untidy 50–foot–by–60–foot floor. Everything was done by hand, from drawing the plans to cutting and stitching the sailcloth. There weren't any sewing machines,or the recessed floor–pits so common today, in which sailmakers sit to keep the sailcloth lying flat as they sew.

ART PINEA stitcher pulls sailcloth toward the sewing machine.

"When you wanted to work on another part of the sail, you had to wrestle it into place," Cullen says.

Not anymore. These days, Cullen, 57, is a designer for North Sails, and both the surroundings and the sailmaker's craft have been transformed into a 21st–century, high–technology process that almost certainly would leave even sailmakers of the 1970s agog.

Today Cullen does his designing using sophisticated computer graphics that enable him to draw a precise three–dimensional model of a sail on his monitor and turn it to any position he wants so he can see how it changes shape under different conditions. On the left side of the screen, the computer displays measurements that translate the drawing into design specifications. The fabric is cut by computer–controlled lasers that are far more accurate than a pair of scissors could be.

The sail–building process takes place in a well–organized, hangar–sized factory whose spotless layout floor is ringed with work tables. Stitching is done on industrial sewing machines that do the job with consistency and added strength. And workers sit in recessed cubicles that enable them to pull the sailcloth easily across the layout floor and keep the material level with the sewing machine needle.

Even the fabric has been upgraded. Higher–end racing sails are usually composites–laminates that contain Kevlar, Mylar and carbon–fiber components. Even the traditional Dacron fabric, still used for low– and medium–cost cruising sails, is more tightly–woven and better–made than it used to be. And custom sails often are made from a single piece of fabric, positioned to give its weave maximum strength and endurance.

ART PINESailmakers at North Sails swing from the ceiling Peter Pan style to work on sails. "It's light–years ahead of what it was when I started out," Cullen says. "You'd never recognize it as the same business."

A REVOLUTION IN SAILMAKING

To be sure, not every sail loft in the U.S. is as sophisticated as Cullen's current shop. North and its big–name high–tech competitors, Doyle Sailmakers and U.K.–Halsey, have garnered the lion's share of the U.S. and global markets. There still are hundreds of smaller independent sail lofts across the U.S. that offer well–built sails for racers and cruisers who don't need or want computer–precise high–tech composites. Their prices–and quality–vary widely, and so does their service, which can range from personalized to persnickety.

But the large firms have engineered a revolution in sailmaking, changing it from a seafarer's art to a true manufacturing process–almost certainly for the better, as far as both high– and low–end sailboat owners are concerned.

For one thing, the sailcloth and materials now being used are far stronger and more durable than the canvas or the early Dacron used 40 years ago. During the early 1990s, sailmakers began turning to Kevlar and Mylar to make higher–end cruising and racing sails, enabling them to build sails that were far lighter and that stretched less than Dacron. Dacron itself is now so well made that it is virtually pre–stretched before the cloth is woven, says Jonathan Bartlett of North Sails' Annapolis office.

Computerization has also revolutionized sailmaking, even among smaller, mom–and–pop lofts. Today's sails not only are designed, cut and fitted more precisely, but computers have made it possible for sailmakers to move away from old–fashioned cross–cut panels in producing sails to tri–radial designs and, more recently, composite three–dimensional laminated sails that are lighter and stronger yet, hold their shape longer and can add several knots to your boat speed. (Today's long–distance racing sailboats often top 20 knots under sail.)

"It's turned sailing around," Bartlett says.

Indeed, North's high–end production facility in Minden, Nev., which exclusively builds its carbon and Aramid–a material similar to DuPont's Mylar–3DL racing and cruising sails in a hangar–sized assembly plant, looks more like a high–tech factory than a sail loft. Computer–controlled robotic arms fit sailcloth and attachments on giant molds, while highly skilled workers–suspended from harnesses that carry them prone, Peter–Pan–style, over the sail and its mold–position and compress the laminate. When the laminate has cured, experienced stitchers attach corner reinforcements, batten pockets, bolt ropes and protective patches.