With Layline and APS closed, who do you mail order from

[Somebody Else]

McMaster Carr is great. Want stainless steel bolts? Sure... which specific alloy would you like?

The cost of a box of 50 is the same as the cost of 10 from West Marine so, not only do you get a better alloy, you have 40 spares all for the price of 10 from WM.

 

[JM1366]

McMaster Carr is great. Want stainless steel bolts? Sure... which specific alloy would you like?

The cost of a box of 50 is the same as the cost of 10 from West Marine so, not only do you get a better alloy, you have 40 spares all for the price of 10 from WM.

McMaster is great for any sort of industrial hardware, and they even have some obscure stuff like Titanium hardware, which does matter around precision magnetic sensors. Not such a big deal in sailing though.

 

[Foredeck Shuffle]

Just picked up a bunch of gear, mast sections, sail, parts, lines, etc from US One Design in MA.  Extremely pleased with service, shipping, and quality.

https://usonedesign.com/

I have also ordered and been satisfied with Vela and West Coast.

 

[Alex W]

We bought the APS OD Rigging Department.

Awesome!

Will you start carrying the “Yale Cover Only” cover that APS used to sell?  It was the best option for a low cost and good quality cover when making dyneema halyards.  I haven’t found another source. 

 

[trimfast]

We bought the APS OD Rigging Department.

All the tools, equipment, products.
Kyle (APS owner) was gracious in transferring his knowledge.

--
First 6 months we built out a ~40' long rig bench, integrated workspace.
We hired, trained and tested our systems this year to build good systems.
Installed a custom ERP (software) that moves online orders directly to the build team.
It's pretty slick.

We did a limited roll out of all APS products in 2021.  Small scale, to make sure we could deliver what we promised.
We made some mistakes, learned a lot, and have a good team of 3-4 people working on dialing it in for 2022.
 

--
This winter, we're going through the APS catalog we didn't get to, boat by boat (J/22, J/24, M24, J70, Thistle, Lightning, etc etc).
Each product, line by line. Is it still good? Are good sailors still using it? What can be improved or done better?

We're sponsoring WCS Team Riders - often pro sailors - in each class, to understand what that fleet needs/wants for rigging.
That is giving us the confidence to deliver the product APS was known for.

It's a process.  A long one.
But, we're trying to do it like APS did.  Do it right.
Make it easy to order online quickly, and have it on your doorstep in days.
Put it on the boat and say 'great, that works just as I hoped'

Expect a significantly expanded catalog of products from us, for the most popular OD boats, Spring 2022.

Yes, you did that right. From what I understand, those books were actually developed by the customer service team who were all sailors and 95% of them racers.  They methodically went over boats to see where they could make things better, have it a class spec for the rules, and give customers the best options available. They also went over the books and made changes if anything developed.  When the J70 came out, it was an extensive process of going to the boats, measuring lines, blocks, rig, etc to make it right. Those books should be worth gold.

 

[WestCoast]

Yes, you did that right. From what I understand, those books were actually developed by the customer service team who were all sailors and 95% of them racers.  They methodically went over boats to see where they could make things better, have it a class spec for the rules, and give customers the best options available. They also went over the books and made changes if anything developed.  When the J70 came out, it was an extensive process of going to the boats, measuring lines, blocks, rig, etc to make it right. Those books should be worth gold.

@trimfast  It wasn't cheap, but yes, that's exactly what we bought it.  Get the right stuff, the first time.

Should see ~90% of the APS catalog rigging available in 2022.

@Alex W Not sure personally, but I'll ask our rigging team and tell them someone was asking about it.

 

[Lex Teredo]

McMaster Carr is great. Want stainless steel bolts? Sure... which specific alloy would you like?

The cost of a box of 50 is the same as the cost of 10 from West Marine so, not only do you get a better alloy, you have 40 spares all for the price of 10 from WM.

Chesapeake Fasteners sells out of Fawcett Marine in Annapolis, and Fawcett has an online presence.  Same quality as McM-C, similar price, but they have a lot of the oddball marine spec screws and bolts that West used to carry before their retrenchment and store closures a couple years ago.   I'd hit McM-C or similar supplier but I like contributing just a little to keeping a good local chandlery open when I can.  I order lines from Defender or Fisheries when they have what I want in stock, but neither is like APS was.  They had books but the staff was incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.   

 

[Laurent]

Defender?

Since your post is exactly ONE WORD, I don't know if you are proposing Defender as an alterante source for APS, like many others did, or if you are asking who those "Defender" people are...

In case it is the second interpretation, here it is.... Not too difficult to find...   https://www.defender.com/

 

[Fretz]

Colie Sails has been good to us.  Anything not on the website can be ordered and ground shipping arrives the next day meaning I can procrastinate that much longer.  Jeff Bezos is never going to support a regatta or hand me gloves 5 min after the harbor gun on credit when mine are at home either.

Mcmaster Carr is great for stainless, Teflon tapes, G10 derlin etc.  Im amazed at the delivery showing up in hours too.

 

[sailordude69]

I go with Todd Jones at https://www.thomashardwarecompany.com/ for most things on my Viper and Blusail 24.  

Give them a call.  Ordering off the website isn't great.

 

[Shorthanded]

I go with Todd Jones at https://www.thomashardwarecompany.com/ for most things on my Viper and Blusail 24.  

Give them a call.  Ordering off the website isn't great.

Same here. All rigging for the J111 comes from Todd and I check with him first on other items to see if he can get them before going anywhere else. 

 

[Pokey uh da LBC]

Just ordered some 1/4 Control DPX from Mauriprosailing.com for $0.78/foot (Over $2 elsewhere). They're having a "garage sale" right now with some great deals. Also grabbed a Slam jacket for over 50% off. 

But truthfully, I'm not very loyal. Just received some beautiful (Chinese, no doubt) pelican hooks for $11 each from Marinepartsdepot.com. Their prices for deck hardware are super cheap and pretty good quality (some snap shackles purchased from them 8 years ago still function perfectly).