Offshore Spars

Offshore Spars is a US manufacturer of custom-designed carbon fiber and aluminum spars for sailing yachts.[1]

Offshore Spars
TypePrivate
IndustryMarine
Founded1976
HeadquartersChesterfield, Michigan, United States
Number of employees
19 (2016)
Websitewww.offshorespars.com

Early years

In 1976, the company now known as Offshore Spars was opened for business in Mt. Clemens, Michigan. At the time, the sailing market in the United States was booming with numerous production sailboat manufacturers, such as S2 Yachts, C&C Yachts, Tartan Yachts, and Saga Yachts, all located within a short distance of the Offshore Spars facility. In its infancy the company focused on high quality, fully welded production aluminum masts and booms for boats under 40 ft (12 m). With the production mast business booming, Offshore Spars started to branch out into larger yachts built around the United States. In the mid-80s to early 90s Offshore Spars produced numerous aluminum packages for large sailing yachts up to 110 ft for companies such as Palmer Johnson, Derecktor Shipyards, and many more.

Composite era

The 1992 America's Cup brought a major shakeup to the sailboat mast industry as it was then known. This was the first time in long history of the sport that carbon fiber was allowed to be used in mast production. Realizing this as a great opportunity, Offshore Spars teamed up with Bill Koch's America Cubed syndicate as the primary mast supplier. Having no composite experience, production machinery, or tooling, this switch in manufacturing materials brought some major challenges to both Offshore Spars and the America Cubed syndicate. To help tackle these challenges the duo teamed up with Hercules Aerospace, which had been well versed in composite manufacturing for many years. Through that collaboration the Offshore Spars process of male molded, autoclave cured carbon sailboat spars was born.

With the America's Cup spars being the first carbon spars the company produced, the autoclave curing of the masts had to be outsourced. After seeing that process and the quality of the mast section it produced, Offshore Spars quickly invested in the technology and purchased a 70 ft autoclave of their own, which at the time was the longest in the United States. Since the purchase of the autoclave, Offshore Spars has invested heavily in the male molded composite production process with in-house designed tooling, mandrel turning stations, and de-bulk tape wrapping machines. Staying apprised of composite manufacturing process in an effort to build on the company's existing knowledge ensures that Offshore Spars is always at the forefront of composite spar construction.

Manufacturing in Europe

In 2002 Offshore Spars purchased the Nautor Mast Company, which was a subsidiary of Nautor Swan, a Finnish Boat building company known for producing some of the world's most durable and prestigious performance sailboats. At the time of purchase Nautor Mast was producing aluminum masts and booms for all of the Nautor Swan range, a manufacturing method and attention to detail which Offshore Spars adapted and continued to build to.

In 2008 Offshore Spars invested in installing carbon fiber-producing technology in the Finland plant which was adjacent to the Nautor Swan Boatbuilding Technology Complex (BTC). The investment in carbon fiber included a new 33 m (110 ft) autoclave, mandrel turning stations, automated tape wrapping machines and training of a composite team to layup the spars. Offshore Spars AB produced carbon and aluminum spars side by side from that day forward until the facility was closed in 2010 due to the worldwide economic slowdown.

Expansion of US facility

In 2010 Offshore Spars broke ground on a factory expansion at the Chesterfield, Michigan manufacturing location. This expansion was a purpose-built a 16,000 square foot addition to the manufacturing floor. Accompanying the expansion was a 40 ft autoclave extension taking it to 110 ft (33m) long, two state of the art paint spray booths, a waterjet cutting machine, and a CNC carbon fiber pattern cutting machine.

Sale of company

On December 31, 2010 company founder Michael J. Feldman, President and sole stock holder of Offshore Spars Co., sold 100% of his shares of the company to close colleague and Vice President, Steven L. King.[2] King is the present day owner and committed to running the company based on the building blocks of product quality, customer service, and innovation which Feldman had made staples of the brand.

Locations

The sales and manufacturing facility for Offshore Spars is housed in a 38,000-square-foot (3,500 m2) building located in Chesterfield, Michigan (30 miles north of Detroit).

A West Coast sales and engineering office was opened in March 1996 in Manhattan Beach, California.

Notable customers

Below is a list of sailboat designers and manufacturers whose yachts feature Offshore Spars.[3]

References
  1. Spar Manufacturers, RSB Rigging Webpage.
  2. Offshore Spars News. Offshore Spars Webpage.
  3. Past Projects. Offshore Spars Webpage.
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