Hall Spars and Rigging

In June 1980, Eric Hall and Phil Garland founded Hall Spars & Rigging. The first shop was on 7 Burnside Street in Bristol, RI, on the original grounds of the storied Herreshoff Manufacturing Co. Four mast makers and a receptionist completed the first Team Hall.

Looking back, Eric Hall traces the path that led him to open his own spar company. "Since earliest memory, I sailed with our family, first on the family racer-cruisers then later in Dyer Dhows, Thistles, and Flying Dutchmen with my brothers Ned and Ben. As far back as high school days, I was dreaming of starting my own business. In the late Sixties I became a distributor for specialty Flying Dutchman fittings. In 1972, I took a job managing a spar business in Germany with an option for partnership. Even then my lofty benchmark was the McLaren Racecar Company. The late Bruce McLaren was once asked, 'What's your secret to building better racecars than anyone else?' McLaren answered, 'No secret at all. We just make common racecars uncommonly well.' I liked that. To this day, McLaren remains a benchmark.

"In 1975, I helped start a spar business as a partner (Stearn Masts, Wisconsin). Shortly afterward, I was hired away to run Schaefer Marine's spar business. When Schaefer stopped spar manufacturing in 1980, I decided to start my own business and signed a license agreement with Schaefer. Although the new company started with a good foundation of OEM production spar work - the first Hall clients were Tartan Yachts, S2, and Pearson - it was not long before Phil and I, following our mutual interest in racing, began to solicit high performance racing spar and rigging business. Within three years we were building our first America's Cup mast."

The crew at 7 Burnside, 1985.

When the doors opened at 7 Burnside, Phil Garland found himself in the role of rigger, rigging salesman, and co-owner of the rigging side of the business. With a swaging machine and his technique for splicing, Phil was the sole "employee" of the rigging shop for the first year of business. Having worked on boats and then for Bob Derecktor in Mamaroneck, NY, Phil was a regular on the racing circuit. After leaving Derecktor to travel around the world with his fiancee (he sold his Pearson Triton to pay for the trip, opting for air travel over sea travel, and yes, they're still married), Phil moved to Rhode Island at the urging of his friend, boat builder Eric Goetz. Working for Goetz building One Tonners and Half Tonners, Phil was always on the lookout for a chance to get into the rigging business.

"It's funny how things happen," says Phil. "During my trip around the world, I had the offers to run boat yards in both Edgartown [Massachusetts] and Whangarei [New Zealand]. But I wanted to get into the rigging business. Eric Goetz introduced me to Eric Hall . . . that's how I became co-owner of Hall Rigging."

"Because of my friendship with Jim Pugh, I had the opportunity to sail with a lot of high profile crews. Right after we opened the business, I went off to sail the Bermuda Race with Tom Blackaller. There weren't many Hall masts in those days, and Eric felt I was capricious to go off sailing at the time. But after the race we both agreed that this high-performance market was the right market for Hall Spars and Hall Rigging."

After that, things started to change quickly for Hall, first with a mast for Boomerang (80' Derecktor maxi) and then several One Tonners. Hall masts appeared on more boats and Hall's reputation began to grow.

Ben Hall Joins the Company

Meanwhile, in Guilford, Connecticut, in 1981, Kenyon Marine was the largest spar supplier in the U.S., thanks in part to their production of the J/24 mast. Watching the emergence of Hall Spars was Kenyon's vice president and soon-to-be-named president, Ben Hall.

"We found ourselves selling similar spars to the same customers," says Ben. "We both had prototype masts for the first J22 in 1982, and we were competing for the OEM business in everything from small aluminum masts to 40-footers." Ben had been at Kenyon since 1974. At that time Kenyon was owned by Outdoor Sports and later the Brown Group (makers of Buster Brown shoes), both large corporations. Kenyon was the largest manufacturer of production spars, with hardware, instrument, and marine stove divisions as well as Hard Sails under the corporate umbrella.

"Nan [Hall, Ben's wife] and I started a branch of Hard Sails in Guilford in 1970, and we were upstairs from Kenyon. We built the mast for our Quarter-Tonner in their shop, which Eric designed for us while he was working at Union Spars in Germany. So when Kenyon's spar guy was near retirement, they asked me to join the company and work with him. "I started talking with Eric about Hall in 1981, but neither of us were ready at the time. Hall just wasn't big enough and I was doing well at Kenyon. It was uncomfortable to be competing for business, but we handled it pretty well."

Kenyon had mast facilities in Connecticut, Florida, and California. Eventually Ben found himself more involved in corporate paperwork and politics than in mast making. "I saw that Hall could get a product to market faster. At Kenyon, due to corporate protocol, we had to do feasibility studies and all kinds of paperwork before we could introduce a new product. By that time the opportunity would have passed."

In 1984, the brothers decided the time was right for a partnership. "I was fed up [with the corporate politics at Kenyon] when I left, so it was an easy decision," Ben recalls with a smile. "It was a big relief to be working together. But probably no one was more relieved than our dad." Bob Hall had loaned Eric the money to start Hall Spars, and now happily did the same for Ben, who joined Hall as co-owner and Vice President. "Every penny was paid back," Ben points out.

The first sales call Eric and Ben made together was to Bob Johnstone at J Boats. "I'd worked with Rod on the J24 since Day One when he was building the boat in his garage," says Ben, "so I had a very early relationship with both Bob and Rod." At that meeting the J35 business, and nearly all of the J Boats business, was turned over to Hall Spars. "After that, I was out doing a lot of selling," says Ben.

From his days sailing the Quarter and Half tonners, Ben was well-connected in the racing world. "We were asked to build the mast for Fujimo and made the first four-spreader rig for a 50-footer. The 50s then were like the TP52s today - that's where the real action was. Sparcraft masts dominated the grand-prix racing scene, but we had a better mast system." Ben started out calling tactics on Fujimo and then took over as helmsman.

After winning the SORC, Hall started getting more of the 50-foot business. Another project was the Jubert/Nivelt Leading Edge. Ben was again tapped as helmsman. "We were winning the SORC, until the Miami Nassau Race, which was upwind in heavy air." Hall masts were starting to make a big impression. Ben continued to helm a variety of winners from the SORC to the Bermuda Race and the world championships, augmenting Hall's success on the racecourse.

"We weren't a huge company, but we really achieved a lot with very little." Hall had now grown to three companies: Hall Spars, Hall Rigging, and Hall Engineering.

Hall Builds its First State-of-the-Art Facility

In 1988, the Herreshoff company decided to use its building to develop a marine museum, and the Hall lease was not renewed. "We toyed with the idea of moving to another location near the water to encourage rigging and repair business," says Phil, "but it was more economical to focus on an efficient building for manufacturing. That meant a larger location, which happened to be farther from the waterfront."

Ben (left) and Eric, 1988.

The team broke ground at 17 Peckham Drive in a small industrial park in Bristol. The industrial park would grow into a major marine hub, with boatbuilders Carroll Marine, Goetz Boats, Merrifield Roberts, and Shannon Yachts, in addition to Hall, all humming with activity during the 90s.

The Carbon Era Begins

By 1990 Hall Spars' commitment to composites was well established. The Advanced Composites Division of Hall formally opened in 1989, in time for Hall's 10-year anniversary. A "clean room" and 50-foot curing oven were added to the factory, and a change was made from wet layupt to oven-cured pre-preg composite manufacturing. One of the first projects using oven-cured pre-preg materials was the arch-shaped bipod mast for Harken's Procyon.

In 1992, Hall Spars was chosen to build the booms and spinnaker poles, reaching struts, and rudder stocks for the technology-driven America3 America's Cup syndicate. The oven was replaced by a 30,000-pound aerospace-quality autoclave, the first in the sparmaking industry.

"I dreamed of making aerospace-grade advanced composite masts since we founded Hall Spars in 1980," says Eric Hall. "With the addition of the autoclave, we could now make masts with laminates as good as any in the aerospace industry."

Five thousand square feet were added to the Hall factory. Not only did the work with America3 position Hall at the top of the sailing industry in composite technology and manufacturing, it also established Hall engineering as a force in composite design.

17 Peckham Drive.

By the time the Cup races concluded, Hall's transition to carbon was complete. Aluminum artisans became to carbon experts, and mandrels and machinery needed to expedite this new manufacturing process were all constructed in house. Only two years later, in 1994, Hall was building the first carbon spars for one-design production boats, beginning with the J/120 and J/130. That same year, Hall built the first composite spar for a production IMS racer, Carroll Marine's Nelson Marek 39 and custom racing masts for the Nelson Marek 50-footer Virago and Tripp 47 Wonder.

The rigging shop was also evolving. "We were busy adapting end fittings and tangs to fit the new carbon masts," recalls Phil. "We were still using rod at the time. High-tech fiber rigging didn't come along until much later." During this time, Hall also set up a hardware distribution department, which soon evolved into one of the largest distributors of marine hardware in the U.S.

In 1994, Nan Hall joined the company to set up and manage the customer service department, a position she holds today. Her background as a champion sailor combined with her passion for the business quickly established Hall as a leader in customer service. "She's better known to most of our customers than Eric, Phil or I," says Ben. "She is here 10 hours a day and most weekends, following up with customers and sorting out the details of their orders.  She is as much a part of the company success as the products we make."

For the next Cup, in 1995, Hall built composite structural elements as well as a boom for Young America's defense bid. While unsuccessful, the Young America team established itself as a team of the future. And, although America3 had booms built somewhere else, they ultimately raced with the Hall booms built in 1992.

16 Peckham Drive.

By 1998, the Hall companies had outgrown the facility at 17 Peckham Drive. A building across the street was purchased and Hall Rigging moved into a 10,000-square-foot shop.

Young America was back with another Cup bid in 1999, and Hall Spars built a radical wing mast. The three-spreader rig was very stiff, with the largest fore-and-aft dimension of any mast in Auckland, adding considerable unrated sail area. It was very fast, and it caught the attention of a young Russell Coutts, then skipper of Team New Zealand.

Hall Wins the America's Cup

Russell Coutts didn't forget about the Hall spar he admired in 1999. When he left Team New Zealand and made the move to the Swiss team Alinghi, Hall spars was contracted to build the spars for his renegade new team. In March 2003, Alinghi, equipped with Hall spars (mast, boom, reaching strut, spinnaker pole) won the America's Cup, giving Hall its first America's Cup victory.

The America's Cup project was not the only milestone reached as the calendar turned to a new millennium. In late 2000, the decision was made to unite the Hall companies under one brand. Hall Spars, Hall Rigging, and Hall Engineering come together under the grey/red logo as Hall Spars & Rigging. The strength of the united company allowed continued growth and the decision was made to expand into Europe.

The Holland team.

Hall bought the Proctor Mast company based in Breskens, Holland, in 2001. Proctor was working in aluminum, but owners Jos van den Heuvel and Andre Vermeulen were keen to begin carbon construction and joined Hall Spars & Rigging in 2001. Plans for a purpose-built factory with a new autoclave were drawn up and construction took place throughout 2001. Tim Hall joined the team in Holland to manage the set-up of the carbon shop and training of the carbon construction team. The formal opening of the factory and full carbon production began early in 2002.

As the company grew, so did the size of its mast projects.

Visione mast leaves the factory, 2002.

In 2002, Hall designed and built the mast for the Baltic 147 Visione. At 182 feet long, the mast exceed the length of the building by 10 feet. A temporary shelter was built over the mast where it extended out the overhead door.

The landscape of spar building seemed to change overnight. Where the "big-boat projects" of the 90s were 50-footers, by 2004, the average mast length was 136 feet, nearly double the length of the average 50-footer mast. "Superyacht" became part of the Hall vocabulary. In 2003, Hall constructed masts for the Farr 115 Sojana, followed by masts for the Wally 98 Alexia, the Briand 115 Hamilton II, and a Jongert 29m.

To accommodate the expanding list of clients in the Mediterranean region, home to most of the world's superyachts, Andrea Merani opened Hall's Mediterranean Sales & Service Office in April 2004. By this time, it was also clear that Hall had outgrown its factory in the U.S.

Breaking ground for the US factory, 2005.

In 2005, Hall celebrated its 25th Anniversary with an open house at its new state-of-the-art factory in Bristol, RI. The new location was barely one mile from 17 Peckham, but light years away in efficiency and design. Each step in the production cycle was carefully evaluated and the building designed specifically to handle each step in construction with maximum efficiency. A massive, new 46-meter autoclave dwarfed the 20-meter autoclave that had been in use since 1992. Using this new autoclave, spars up to 150 feet could be made in one piece, in one cure cycle.

Hall's first mast for the Volvo Round the World Ocean Race was constructed in 2005 for Paul Cayard and his Disney-sponsored team Pirates of the Caribbean. The Pirates would finish second overall, establishing Hall as force in distance ocean racing.

The finish of the Volvo Race in 2006 marked the beginning of the next America's Cup cycle. Hall products were in high demand, and construction began on masts for four America's Cup teams preparing for the races in 2007: Alinghi, Luna Rossa, Mascalzone Latino, and Victory Challenge.

Superyacht construction was also going strong. In the fall of 2006 Hall eclipsed its "longest mast" record with the delivery of the 188-foot carbon spar built for the Wally 143 Esense.

In June 2007, Alinghi won a second America's Cup equipped with Hall spars (mast, boom, reaching strut, spinnaker pole). During this period, Hall was developing a new concept in halyard locks that worked automatically, without triplines. At the METS trade show in 2007, the Hall AutoLock won honorable mention in the Dame Award competition.

Murray Jones and Garry Hassall.

As Hall continued to make inroads into the superyacht market, the importance of New Zealand as a hub in the boatbuilding industry led to the acquisition of Matrix Masts as the latest Hall Spars factory, based in Auckland. The facility, owned by Murray Jones and Garry Hassall, was already well versed in carbon production. Along with this addition of skilled carbon mast makers, the acquisition also brought the highly refined Oceanfurl furling boom under the Hall brand.

In August 2008, Hall delivered the 50.3 meter mast to the radical trimaran built for a "Deed of Gift" challenge for the America's Cup. In February 2010, BMW Oracle wins the America's Cup sailing with a wing mast made with parts supplied by Hall Spars.

In December of 2008, Hall again exceeded the "longest mast" record, delivering the 195-foot (59.5m) seamless carbon spar for the Wally 148 Saudade.

In early 2009, the Hall factory in Europe was bursting at the seams and ground was broken for a new large building across the street from the still-modern original factory. By late summer 2009, Hall's purpose-built superyacht mast facility was complete. In the process, the autoclave was lengthened to 46 meters, equalling the size of the autoclave in the U.S. factory.

The Holland factory, 2009.

At the METS show in November 2009, Hall introduced SCR Airfoil, Seamless Carbon Rigging with a streamlined, airfoil shape.

Celebrating 30 Years, and Just Getting Started

As Hall celebrates its 30th Anniversary, Hall continues its leading-edge work in both superyacht and top-level racing products. With its signature seamless mast-making process now universally recognized as the best way to make mast tubes, its SCR Airfoil taking the industry by storm, and AutoLocks finding ever more rig and deck applications, Hall is poised to strengthen its already solid position as the world's leading rig supplier.

Thank you to all our customers for 30 exciting years and we look forward to working with you for 30 more.