The company's business lies mainly in the performance cruising market which, says Jeckells, still relies on Dacron, rather than going for more exotic laminates. Most will opt for Marblehead Dacron - it's probably the closest woven Dacron you can get, said Jeckells, made by Challenge in North America. It's got one of the best UV resistances, it's soft and it holds its shape a lot longer than normal Dacrons.

This is obviously good news, especially for those undertaking longer trips. There seems to be a trend for people to sell up, buy a boat and take off on that voyage of a lifetime.

But they often get to Gibraltar, realise what they're getting into, get frightened and stop.

The gradual penetration of laminates into the cruising world is on the way. Right now the cut-off point seems to be around 15m, but with advances on the manufacture of laminates, smaller boats will soon be able to afford them.

One of those advances may soon be installed at Jeckells where they are looking at an addition to their laser cutters that will lay strands onto fabric for them to disperse the loads better.

But right now, the desire for furling systems means laminates are not good value for money for Mr average yachtsman. A headsail left on a furler for the summer will soon begin to show signs of creepage, with the consequent breakdown in the laminate.

We establish how much they want to spend on a furling system and what they want to achieve, says Jeckells. "If they want to go faster, we'll push them into Harken because it's got independent top and bottom swivels, which means they can get better control over the shape of the sail - we give them a fuller sail and they can flatten it out easily; then it rolls nicely as a flat sail. If they want to go round the world we'll shove a Profurl on and for smaller boats we'll sell them a Rotostay or a Bamar."

Jeckells launched its own inboom mainsail furling system a while back, but they won't produce systems for big boats.

"The costs involved in tooling up for big boats are horrendous, " said Jeckells. An in-boom system for a 15m boat will be about £12k, he said, but then explained the big problem with an in-boom system is the boat owner.

"They have to handle the sail differently, " he said.

"Because it's a fully battened sail, reefing is different. If there's any wind in the sail, the battens will push forward and can jump forward of the boom at the bottom end and can cause problems. We spend a lot of time educating the customer - once they get the hang of it they're OK."

And what about spinnakers and gennekers? "We do a lot of cruising chutes - a lot more than we do spinnakers. And asymmetrics are definitely on the up."

But it seems the wives are gaining in importance when it comes to choosing sails. A lot of people are buying cruising chutes, says Jeckells, and their wives are saying no to putting the thing up. But if we put a big logo or motif on them, if the boat's called Daffy Duck or something, the wives love that."