A time for riggers

Good times are here, websites blossom (welcome btw to the Voiles de saint Tropez new site) and the international yachting community gets set for the start of the 2013 sailing season . Most of the world’s largest and most spectacular yachts look forward to the Les Voiles, from septembre 28th til october 6th as the toast of their sailing season, the place to look forward to that every one keeps in mind while entering the early spring regattas. The past winter has been a hard working period for most yacht owners and skippers. Boats had to be fitted and rigged, hulls polished and painted… hard at work were the Professional riggers, fine tuning all kind of boats, classics or Modern, providing skippers and crews an expertise dedicated to performance. Louis Heckly and Hugues « Bill » Leclerc belong to this special breed of performance boat navigators and fine tuners, compiling two expertises in one great passion, sailing and rigging.

A rigger is a person whose occupation is the fitting of the rigging of ships. His trade is dealing with ropes and ties, all the « living », moving parts of a sailboat. For Louis and Bill, dealing with ropes as become a natural part of their Professional sailing career. With time and expérience, their expertise has been widely recognised in both the Classic and Modern boats community. « Bill is partricularly dedicated to Classic boats » says Heclky, « while I spend more time aboard Modern yachts. » Wallys, TP52s, Maxis… Heckly can be seen all year around in charge of the main sail or acting as Navigator. Leclerc is probably one the most often photographed sailor in Classic regattas as his N°1 position takes him at the tip of the bowsprit.

Louis Heckly and Hugues Leclerc run « Gréement Courant SA », a swiss base company that present solutions for all rigging problems as well as construction […]