Always Asking Why:
Inside the thinking behind the latest Ullman Sails J/22 development.

Sometimes development begins with data. Sometimes it begins with a sailor saying the boat doesn’t quite feel right.

For Lars Bo Poulsen, it began with a photograph.

Looking back at images from the previous Lipton Cup, in Cape Town South Africa in 2025, something about the J/22 sails caught his eye. Nothing dramatic. The sails were working. But Lars wasn’t satisfied with what he saw in the shape, and that was enough to start asking questions.

Could it be better?

More importantly, why were we doing it this way in the first place?

QUESTION WHAT YOU KNOW

That second question sits at the heart of Lars’ approach to sail design.

Sailmaking carries generations of knowledge with it, and much of that knowledge is incredibly valuable. But Lars believes there’s a danger in accepting something simply because “that’s how we’ve always done it.”

When someone tells him a particular setup makes a boat faster, points higher or simply feels better, he wants to know why.

Can we measure it? What is actually changing? And can we repeat it?

That thinking led Lars and the Ullman design team back into the J/22.

Rather than starting again, they began with what was already known. Existing designs provided the foundation, but nothing was automatically protected from scrutiny. Lars worked closely with fellow designer Matthew, bringing another perspective to the sails and challenging decisions that had previously been made.

That exchange became an important part of the process.

It wasn’t about proving one designer right and another wrong. It was about seeing the same problem from different angles and finding something better between them.

As Lars puts it, if we never look at something from another direction, we never move beyond what we’re already doing.

FROM FEELING TO FACT

Ask any good sailor how the boat feels and they'll usually have an answer.

We’re quicker here. We’re pointing higher. The boat feels better.

Useful information, certainly. But Lars wants to go further.

One of the challenges he sees in one-design development is that sailors often race with relatively limited instrumentation. Ask for exact boat speed at different wind strengths or precise tacking angles, and the answer isn't always available.

That leaves room for assumption.

So part of this latest work has been about reducing the amount of guessing.

Design software allows the team to study the forces acting on a sail and understand what is happening aerodynamically across different areas of the shape. On the water, those ideas then have to meet reality.

Because a computer can tell you plenty. The racecourse tells you whether it works.

Testing, sailor feedback, measurements and conversations all feed back into the next decision. Sometimes the change works. Sometimes it sends you back in another direction.

That's development.

BUILT FOR THE SAILOR

There is another side to performance that can easily disappear amongst numbers.

A fast sail still needs to be a sail people can actually use.

For Lars, good development means creating something that works for the sailor. The sail needs range. It needs to be understandable. And when conditions change and the pressure comes on, the crew needs to feel confident about how to get the best from it.

That's particularly important in a one-design like the J/22, where the differences between boats are small and the sailors themselves have such a significant influence on performance.

Interestingly, when we asked Lars what the hardest part of the entire process had been, he didn't say modelling, construction or testing.

His answer was one word:

“Communication.”

Designer to sailor. Sailor to designer. One designer is challenging another.

Observations from the water making their way back into the next iteration.

Every conversation adds another piece to the picture.

NOW COMES THE REAL TEST

For Lars, there isn't really a finish line to any of this.

“My goal every day is to do better than I did yesterday.”

And now those ideas are heading back to where this story began: the Lipton Cup.

WHAT DID WE LEARN?

Ten races at the Lipton Challenge Cup gave the team the testing ground Lars had been waiting for.

Sailing for Royal Natal Yacht Club, Ullman Racing showed flashes of exactly the pace the development team had been looking for, recording five podium finishes across the regatta, including three second places. A DSQ and a handful of deeper results ultimately left the team sixth overall, but the scorecard only tells part of the story.

For a development programme built around asking questions, Lipton provided something considerably more valuable: answers.

There were clear signs of speed. There were conditions and moments that worked. And, just as importantly, there is now another ten races' worth of information to take back to the design table.

Lars said before the event that if the sails proved better, they would know they were moving in the right direction. If they were equal, there would simply be more work to do.

That's the nature of development. You test, you learn, you adjust, and then you go sailing again.