FIELD NOTES: GRAND-PRIX SAILING WITH AL RAMADAN

In grand-prix sailing, having the right gear is critical. When racing high-performance, one-design boats like the ClubSwan 28, sailors spend hours exposed to the sun while executing high-speed maneuvers on flat-out downwind runs and tight upwind legs.

"In one-design fleets like the ClubSwan 28, every boat is physically identical and the wins are found in the crew's physical endurance over a four-day regatta. If your crew is fighting sunstroke, restricted movement, or wet, chafing gear by race three of the day, you're giving away percentage points to teams that aren't," says Casey Gignac, who leads our Bulk Order program for sailing teams.

With years of coaching and competition expertise, Casey now works directly with owners, captains, and clubs around the globe to build custom, high-performance FLORENCE gear kits for their entire operation.

Al Ramadan is one person who has bridged the gap. As owner and captain of Play Bigger, the first U.S. entry in the ClubSwan 28 fleet, Al brought a deep understanding of our DNA from lifelong passion for surfing, sailing and waterman culture. Al approached FLORENCE knowing modern sailing, especially racing, demands lightweight, high-performance mobility rather than bulky traditional foul-weather gear. That shared vision resulted in a tailored equipment ecosystem for his team.

"With Play Bigger, we introduced the crew to FLORENCE through our Sun Pro Max Hooded UPF Shirt. The gaiter provided them with the added wind block that mattered at venues like Bonifacio or Pensacola. When the team moved into hot Mediterranean conditions in Scarlino, the Hooded Airtex became their breathable solution paired with our Cordura® Utility and Cordura® Covert Shorts for added storage or specific movement profiles." - Casey Gignac, FLORENCE Sailing

We recently checked in with Al mid-way through their global circuit to discuss how the gear has been performing across their stops in the United States and Europe.

Interview by Bryce Lowe-White
Photos by Hannah Lee Noll / Club Swan Racing

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Take us aboard Play Bigger during a demanding race. What are the conditions throwing at you?

The ClubSwan 28 is a fun, fast, and physical one-design yacht. It's a compact Grand Prix racer. You're sailing on apparent wind most of the time, which means the breeze always feels like it's forward of the beam. Upwind, the crew is wet and hiking hard. There is no place to hide from the elements on these little rocket ships.

Downwind, you're chasing pressure and surfing waves. It's often wet when the wind is more than 12 knots and the boat begins planing above 10 knots. What most people don't realize is how much time you spend sitting in water. Trimming upwind on a wet, choppy day, you will be sitting in a puddle for two or three hours straight. Your knees and neck are getting sunburnt and the butt of your pants is soaked before the first mark rounding.

It's a one-design fleet, so the margins are incredibly small. We are using all of our mental and physical energy to make the boat go the 1% more it needs. Add in the Mediterranean heat and UV, and you've got a pretty demanding environment for whatever you're wearing.

Before choosing FLORENCE, what was missing from the sailing gear available to your team?

We needed a modern apparel choice that looked as good as it performed. The traditional sailing brands were designed for offshore sailing: cold weather, heavy conditions, long passages at sea. That gear was designed to keep the elements away while you stand a watch.

That's a completely different problem than what we're solving. We're racing hard, in the heat, with a boat that requires a very dynamic set of movements. We needed gear that was made to sweat in and allowed us to move freely.

What criteria mattered most?

We're racing hard in the heat. The boat demands constant movement. You need gear that's made to sweat in, not really gear that's made to seal you off from the elements while on watch on an ocean racer.

I understood that gap clearly because I come from surfing. I've watched performance change what surf gear looks and feels like, what it asks of fabric, fit, and construction. The sailing world hadn't gone through that same evolution yet. The wetsuit built for diving and the wetsuit built for surfing look similar from across the room, but they're solving completely different problems. That's exactly where sailing apparel was sitting. FLORENCE already knew how to solve the other problem.

What gave you confidence that FLORENCE gear, although not from a traditional sailing brand, was purpose-made for the conditions your team encounters?

Honestly, the confidence was already there. I wasn't walking into this blind. Coming from a surf background, I was familiar with the products, and I'd been following the brand for years.

You know quickly whether a company actually understands performance or whether they're just making things that look good. FLORENCE understood it.

When we finally put the gear to the test, it confirmed what I already knew. The Sun Hoodies improved the quality of our sailing immediately, and the rest is history. I've always believed that the best answer to a problem rarely comes from inside the existing market. FLORENCE wasn't trying to beat the traditional sailing brands at their own game. They were solving a different problem, and it turned out to be exactly ours.

At the end of a regatta, what proves to you that the team's gear has done its job?

The gear does its job when it disappears. When nobody's adjusting a collar or pulling a hem or complaining about chafe, that's when you know. You stop thinking about what you're wearing and start thinking about going fast.

That said, there is something else. Gear transforms a group of people into a team. It's the gameday feeling of putting on your jersey before you step onto the pitch or like Superman pulling on his cape. When we push off as the Play Bigger team, our egos get left at the dock, and our team emerges as one unit. 🚩

Learn more about our Bulk Order Program for teams.