Whirlwind Sails is owned and operated by Chip Buck and Karen Smith.  Together with the talented skills of Jake, Marcos, Maria and Daniel we build and ship beach cat sails worldwide.

Chip began his sailmaking career in 1991 working for North Sails One Design.  While at North, Chip built windsurfing sails in his garage.  His windsurf designs gained notoriety when Performance Windsurf Report Magazine voted his sail "Best Custom Sail".  In 1995, Chip was hired by the Hobie Cat Company to run their loft.  At Hobie, Chip digitized their entire sail inventory for computer cutting, re-training their sailmakers and re-worked the loft for a more efficient work flow.  

In 1998, after taking time off to work at Hobie, Chip re-started Point Sails and grew his business from no employees to four.   His inventory of designs also grew to include sails for PHRF race boats, beach cats of all sizes, shade sails and anything that required a large table.

Whirlwind Sails is all of Chip's beach cat designs put under one brand.  Knowing that beach cat sailors and monohull sailors speak two different languages, Chip decided to separate the two brands.   "Beach cat sails are more fun to build", says Chip "they're similar to the windsurfing sails I used to make".