2009 - 2010 - The Falcon Sails initial design ( Advantage ) was created and tested and continually refined.
March 2011 - Falcon Advantage design is finalized and all inventory necessary to build sails. You can see color options at our designer page
June 1st 2011 - Our preliminary web store for buying sails is up and running. We have not tested it a lot, but its there.
June 10th through June 12th - Falcon Sails and friends are present at the 8th annual South Bass Island Rendezvous.
June 27th - Testing in 20 mph winds indicates a 1.3 meter Falcon Advantage design sail made out of 1.5 oz Nylon operates great with only a 15" long 3/32" round fiberglass batten. Previously to be sure they are strong enough our designs included more battens that where much heavier and longer. Longer & heavier battens negatively effect the designed sail shape & also make the sail harder to store. Our super light weight and minimalist battens fix problems found created when battens are over engineered.
July 14th through July 17th - Falcon Sails exhibits at the Great Lakes Sea Kayak Symposium in Grand Marias Michigan on Lake Superior.
July 18th - Falcon Sails LLC posts videos to youtube. See http://www.youtube.com/user/FalconSails
July 19th - Falcon Sails LLC makes its 1st on line sale. Until now all sales have been made to friends, and by word of mouth.
July 19th - Falcon Sails LLC adds a testimonials page to its website. Click here to see it.
July 19th - Falcon Sails LLC adds a installation instructions page to its website. Click here to see it.
August 3rd - Instruction page has been updated. Click here to see it
August 4th - Falcon Sails LLC Sail Designer & head sail maker is starting a 9 day trip to Isle Royale National Park for a 9 day expedition to give the latest designs a solid work out. This area is remote with no chances for support of any kind. Videos are available on our home page. Pictures are available at by clicking here.
August 14th - We are back from our Isle Royale test trip. The new sails performed very good. Those without sails where always way behind.
September 10th - About the only thing that can Keep Patrick Forrester away from sailing are some good waves. Click here to see the picture.
September 13th - The first sail of our new design has been made. It has more curve & and upswept angle on the boom for some installs that have limited space, and for racers that want to keep an aggressive stroke and still never have their paddle hit the boom. Its not listed on our purchase page yet but you can see a picture of it here. If you are interested we can make a custom sail for you. Contact us and let us know and we can fill you in on the details.
September 17th - Falcon Sails LLC Sail Designer & head sail maker has found a good excuse to do another extended paddling week end. I mean we are going to the Kelley's Island ( West End of Lake Erie ) Poker paddle on the 17th, but will arrive early and leave late to take advantage of the big lake winds to test our latest designs & get to hang out with some of our customers. It would be great to see you there. There should be 6 Falcon Sail owners taking advantage of this opportunity.
March 2nd - 10th 2013 - Falcon Sails were used for the first time in the Everglades Challenge & posted great results. The Everglades Challenge is a 300 mile adventure race that starts in Tampa Bay and ends in Key Largo. Participants must make it to Key Largo within 8 days in order to officially finish the race. There were 3 Falcon Sailors in the race, and all finished in just over 5 days.
There were 2 Falcon Sailors in class 1. All Class 1 racers use a standard kayak or canoe and a 1 square meter sail. Joe Tousignant ( joewildlife )a Falcon Sailor in class 1 finished the race with the 4th best time out of 30 racers. When considering the difficulty and distance of the route he chose, he officially came in first place out of 30 racers.
He bought his Falcon Sail just before the race and had no experience paddle sailing until that time. Joe says " I had no experience paddle sailing until a few weeks before the race, and only had 2 short practice paddle sails in light wind. It takes some practice, but once you get the hang of paddle sailing, it is easy.The Falcon's ability to be quickly lowered, really helped a few times during the race. I had a lot of fun with the sail and could surely push it harder with more experience ! "
Joe also said " My experience with my Falcon Sail has been very positive. The Falcon Sail kept the boat moving when I was taking breaks to rest, eat, or doing other housekeeping chores. I was easily able to add at least .5 mph to my paddling, and normally about 1 mph, even with reduced paddling effort. My best and most memorable run was down the Joe River towards the end of the Wilderness Waterway, where it really helped me maintain a fast clip. I watched the miles peel away after paddling some 36 hours straight, giving me the confidence and encouragement to keep paddling and get to the last checkpoint at Flamingo."
Joe also mentioned how some times there where significant following seas and gusty conditions that made paddling of any kind difficult, so he took the sail down at times. He feels that as he gains more experience, he will leave the sail up more, and derive further benefits from his not so secret weapon.
The other Falcon Sailor in class 1 ( cliffjumps ) finished the race with the 5th best time out of 30. This racer used sails from other makers in previous years and did not finish the race on those attempts. With a 4th and 5th place finish Falcon Sailors averaged 4.5th place. The closest competing sail had an average of 10.5th place and on average was 30 miles behind the average Falcon Sail racer.
In class 3 Falcon Sails had 1 racer with a tribe name of yakmandu. Class 3 allows for unlimited sail sizes and lateral resistance appendages, outriggers, and other items that class 1 does not allow. The leaders in this race have purpose built boats. The Falcon Sailor in this class used a simple Necky Lookshaw kayak with a 1.3 meter falcon sail, a canoe paddle, and some home made outriggers, and still had the 4th best time out of 11 in this class.
This very demanding race proves the effectiveness and reliability of our design. The Falcon Sailors in this race, covered 1,000 miles, and had zero failures. Falcon Sails have more than just an advanced and highly efficient design. It has all the features that experts and novices are looking for. It is simplistic, compact, and reliable.
You can learn more about Falcon Sails at the Everglades Challenge here.
http://www.falconsails.com/ec/index.php
November 9th 2013 - Learn a bit about paddling kayaks made for beginners. Patrick Forrester, owner and designer of Falcon Sails, has been an avid sea kayaker for over 10 years. As a result, sea kayaks have been the main focus for the development and testing of Falcon sails and sail rigs. Since a good percentage of Falcon Sails are rigged on recreational kayaks, Patrick decided to buy a recreational kayak for our testing inventory. Our customers that have recreational kayaks consistently say very good things about Falcon Sails and how well they perform on their recreational kayaks. We wanted to know what it was like for ourselves in order to give the very best advice to our customers. After Patrick gave it a try, he was very surprised at how well the recreational kayak performed under sail with the Falcon sail rigged. As a sea kayaker, he thought the best peformance was only available to owners of sea kayaks. This was proven 100% wrong. He says "The Eddyline Sandpipper performed amazingly. It sailed great. It could easily hold a course without a rudder or a skeg, and at the same time, a simple paddle stroke was all it took to help it change course. It was a great experience that I am looking forward to having again soon."
March 1st 2014 - Falcon Sails use is growing at the 2014 Everglades Challenge. This incredible and known around the world 300 mile adventure race is an aweome oppourutnity in our quest to take our product to the next level. See www.falconsails.com/ec to see the story.