Lowell North (Starlights, August, 1969)
"Who is this fellow North and how does he do it?"
Lowell North
These were the opening words of the LOG account of the 1949 World's Championship, in which Lowell North's North Star crossed the finish line first four times and second once, but was disqualified from one race. This astounding performance at the age of nineteen provoked the quoted question from a startled Star world, and Lowell has since fulfilled the promise of that whirlwind introduction many times over. No one in the Class has a more impressive record today, culminating in the winning of the gold medal at Acapulco last fall.
Rear Commodore of the I.S.C.Y.R.A. for the past seven years, Lowell North is famous both for his yachting victories and for his skill as a sailmaker. The sailing came first, then the sailmaking. By profession originally an aeronautical engineer, he built or helped to build his first two North Stars, and did well with them from the very beginning. His list of nine Blue Stars of the Fifth District dates from 1948, and even before that he had been Malin Burnham's crew at Stamford when they won the World's Championship in 1946. He also holds a Silver Star from the 1957 North American. But his most impressive scores have been in World's Championships: no one else has ever been first three times and runner up four times. Two of those second places were in the last two World's Championships that have been sailed, so that it is Lowell's high point score that brings the Gold Star event to San Diego next month.
North's engineering training, plus his consummate skill in handling unexpected problems that would make most of us give up in despair, have served him well in staving off many a catastrophe. He sails with a perfectly tuned and highly refined rig, so refined that occasionally something lets go at a critical moment. He is famous for effecting emergency repairs during the last five minutes before the start, or even in the middle of the windward leg. His latest exploit of this kind occurred at Acapulco when he and crew Peter Barrett unstepped the mast at sea, threaded the mainsail into the groove, latched it, raised the entire rig again with the mainsail up, and made the start of the race on time.
Lowell's yachting activities have not been restricted to the Star Class. In 1964 he won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympic games skippering the U.S. Dragon. In 1968, prior to his successful qualification as U.S. Star representative, he made a try for a berth on the team as 5.5 skipper. During America's Cup years his business keeps him in close touch with the Twelve?Meters; and he had planned to sail on a Twelve in 1967 but in the end decided against it in favor of campaigning his Star for the season.
Needless to say, the whole North family shares Dad's interest in the sport. Daughter Holly, at the age of nine, handles a sailing dinghy with easy confidence. Lowell's attractive wife Kay points out that, "We even spent our honeymoon in Havana while Lowell was sailing and winning the 1957 World's Championship." How sailing oriented can you be?
Tall and thin, calm and modest, not yet turned forty, Lowell North perhaps comes as close as anyone ever has to being "the perfect Star sailor." He will be at San Diego, his home town, next month, playing the gracious host with one hand while doing his level best to win one more World's Championship with the other.
Pioneering sailmaker Lowell North dies at 89
By Bernie Wilson, AP Sports Writer June 3, 2019
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Lowell North, a pioneering sailmaker who won an Olympic gold medal and four world championships in the venerable Star Class, has died. He was 89. North suffered a stroke Saturday night and died late Sunday night at his home in Point Loma, his son, Danny, said.
"He affected many people's lives when you think about what he's done in sailing," said Malin Burnham, a San Diego sailor and civic leader who teamed with North to win the 1945 Star World Championship when they were both still teenagers. "You know, in the world today, we're talking about civility. He was the epitome of that. I never saw him upset or arguing. He was always calm, cool and collected. He was a great listener. We don't have to agree in this world but maybe we can learn something if we just listen. Lowell was that kind of person. He was special."
Nicknamed "The Pope" by his peers, North began his sailmaking career at 14 when his father purchased a Star with cotton sails. The father and son team came in last in every race, motivating the younger North to recut the mainsail.
After winning the Star worlds as Burnham's crew, North quipped: "It wasn't me Malin wanted. It was my mainsail."
He opened his first North Sails loft on Shelter Island in San Diego in 1957. With an engineering degree, North figured he could build better sails through rigorous testing and incremental improvement. His methodical and scientific approach to sailmaking changed the industry. He hired other champion sailors — calling them "Tigers"— to demonstrate and sell his products. North Sails was the world's biggest sailmaker when he sold it in 1984 and retired.
"His clear purpose, creativity and competitive spirit continue to drive North Sails today — even as the company explores territories he never could have imagined," North Technology Group CEO Tom Whidden, a former America's Cup sailor, said in a statement.
North won the bronze medal in the Dragon Class in the 1964 Olympics and the gold medal in the Star Class in the 1968 Games. He won four Star world championships as a skipper and finished second five times.
He was a member of the inaugural class inducted into the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2011, along with Ted Turner, Dennis Conner and other America's Cup greats. Prior to his passing, Lowell North sat down with Gary Jobson for this interview in which he shared how he developed his skills, built his sailmaking empire, and reflected back on his career.
Dennis Conner was the first to use North Sails in the America's Cup when he won it in 1980. In 2007, the 50th anniversary of North Sails, 11 of the 12 syndicates entered in the America's Cup used sails by North.
Video courtesy of North Sails: The Science & Culture of Lowell North. Hear about his dynamic work culture, scientific approach, success stories and more.
