Hogin Sails

I bought a furling jib and main from Hogins in 2006. Within a year, I had a few small problems, such as a torn batten pocket… I took the sail in and they repaired it for free. I’m a heavy-​duty sailor with lots of weekend afternoons in the slot, so my sails take a beating. Now, this week, I took my jib in for a large 6-​foot tear of the furling cover, a few broken slugs on the main and another torn batten pocket. For a reasonable price, they fixed everything like new — AND GET THIS — even came in on a Saturday morning so that I could pick up the sails for a weekend outing, even though they’re closed on weekends. FIVE STARS for customer service, friendliness and service on their sails.

This is not the Hogan sails of yester-​year. The Hogans sold their sail company to Steve some time ago (I read that somewhere online). On to the review… I have purchased a new main sail, new 90-​headsail, mainsail cover and had 3 sails modified for use in a roller furler (purchased in that order, btw). I feel that Steve and his crew of sail-​makers stand behind their work and the workmanship thus far has been excellent. Almost a year after I had my mainsail delivered, I took it back to have sail numbers added and he didn’t charge me. That’s really great customer service (4-​stars for workmanship, 1-​star for customer service = 5 stars).
My only criticisms are these (–1 star): Steve is a people pleaser and that leads to terrific and amazing customer service as I’ve already mentioned. Unfortunately it also means that if you walk in not knowing very well what you want in your sail, you’ll get a lot of «we can do that.» or when asked his opinion it’s a little passive, «some boats choose to do that and we can do that for you.» No! Steve! Tell me what YOU think is good for my boat. Debate! Argue! You’re the sail maker and I’m the sailor. We’re a team, yes, but you’re the expert on making new sails, I only trim them! :-) Second criticism along the same lines is that he has been too aggressive on schedule. My three week main took 5 ½ weeks. Another problem with my main was that it was missing the cunningham cringle and it wasn’t loose footed. Woops! He was able to correct that in a few days. (Benefit to having a local shop instead of a foreign based shop like North and others).
His prices are about middle of the road. They’re not retail North Sails and they’re not Cruising Direct or Doyle. On the other hand you get to work directly with *the* guy who is making your sail and you get that one-​on-​one customer service which, to me, is worth the little bit more money.