Jim Close - Director

When he was 6, Jim's father introduced him to sailing by putting him in a Mirror dinghy with his brothers. One of their favourite tricks was to sail out into the bay and then jump over the side and swim ashore, leaving Jim to work it all out for himself. Along the way, Jim designed and built his own snowboard and windsurfer at ages 13 and 15 respectively. The Close family's cruising yacht was also another outlet for his sailing desires, during these years, as they went up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia and Bass Strait.

"Mach 1" (Sabot class)

Jim left school when he was 16, and began his apprenticeship as a sail maker with North Sails in Melbourne. Jim's introduction to ocean racing was onboard one of the first of Syd Fischers' 'Ragamuffins', and he completed many other races during this time. Jim was hooked on ocean racing by then. At 18 years of age, he left Australia for England with not much money and a one way ticket, determined to make an impact on yachting!

His first big break with ocean racing was sailing on a 50 foot yacht called 'Jamarella' for the Admiral's Cup in 1989. The boat scored the most points for one boat in the history of the Cup. In fact they achieved more points than the entire German team for that year.

The first boat Jim crewed on for the Whitbread Round the World Race, was 'The Card' in 1989/90. She was a state-of-the-art 81' ketch, and Jim was her sail maker, bowman and alternate helmsman. It was a tough race, and a real learning experience! It was the first time he had raced for such a long period, and endured things like the Southern Ocean and the famous Cape Horn in full race mode. This tested his endurance and desire to perform well.

Cape Horn ("The Card")

Back in England, Jim applied to Chris Dickson of New Zealand for a crew position on 'Tokio' in the 1993/94 Whitbread. Based on his success with racing and sail design, he was hired as sail coordinator and helmsman. It was while training for six months, and 20,000 miles with two boats, that he met his future wife Julie in Taupo, NZ. Julie is a Kiwi and they were engaged during the Auckland stop of that race. Julie and Jim were married a few months after the end of the Whitbread, before they departed for San Diego and the 1995 America's Cup on 'Tag Heuer'.

Julie

It was later, while running the 32m classic cruising yacht 'Kentra', that Jim was contacted by Knut Frostad with regards to sailing on 'Kvaerner Innovation' in the 1997/98 Whitbread race. With his heart really into yacht racing, Jim and Julie flew to Norway a year before the race and both began working for Knut. Jim was the Sail Co-ordinator and Watch Captain, while Julie was employed as the team's Project Secretary.

Returning to Melbourne in July of 1998, Jim formulated the X3 sailing dinghy in response to his desire to make sailing more accessible to school children and families. David Allen joined the X3 project in January 1999.

All in all, Jim has built up a staggering 160,000 nautical miles of ocean racing, which equals 5 laps of the planet!

You can contact Jim at: jim@sailextreme.com

David Allen

Having sailed dinghies from the age of 12, Dave gained his first summer job at North Sails in Melbourne in 1982. With an obvious talent, it was not long before he was sent to Sydney to build the first sails for Kookaburra, South Australia and Australia III & IV. This led to two years as a sail maker and sail analyst for the 1987 America's Cup in Fremantle.

Since then, he has designed sails and coordinated the sail programs for three consecutive America's Cup campaigns: 'Blue Arrow Challenge' (1988), 'Il Moro di Venezia' (1992) and 'Stars and Stripes' (1995). He managed the sail programs and sailed in the Maxi World championships on 'Il Moro di Venezia' (1989) and 'Passage'(1990) and in two Whitbread campaigns: 'The Card' (1989/90) and 'Toshiba' (1997/98).

David's business, Low Stress Sailing, brings together his exemplary management skills and a decade of experience at the top of his field providing an international sailing, sail design, yacht management and coaching service.

David's other passion is painting and his watercolours always accompany him on his travels. He has produced many commissioned pieces over the years and there are several homes that display his work.