Over two decades, Balance Catamarans and Ullman Sails South Africa have come to share a passionate commitment to driving performance cruising.
Working in tandem, with this shared goal, they have designed and built the very specific elements that continue to compel that mission forward daily.
CHAPTER ONE
How It Started
The origins of the relationship between Balance Catamarans and Ullman Sails begin with Balance Catamarans’ builders. Early on, Ulman worked with Two Oceans Marine in Cape Town and Nexus Yachts in St. Francis Bay – the two South African shipyards Balance founder Phil Berman would later choose to build the full line of Balance Catamarans. Continuing that relationship with Balance was, as Dallen Roos, the key account manager of Ullman Sails for Balance Catamarans, describes it, a natural progression.
Much of that early momentum can be traced to one person. Warren Oldroyd, a long-serving sales consultant at Ullman Sails South Africa, was instrumental in first bringing the two companies together and in nurturing the relationship through its formative years. A widely respected and much-loved figure in the local marine industry, the partnership he set in motion continues to carry his legacy forward.
From the Balance side, the decision to partner with Ullman was driven by two clear advantages. The first was Ullman’s well established expertise in multihull sailmaking – an understanding of the platform that not every sail loft possesses. The second was geography. Having a sailmaker based in Cape Town, close enough to the yards to work in genuine lockstep through the build process changes the nature of the sailmaking collaboration entirely. It allows for collaboration and inspiration. Not to mention that issues can be identified and resolved quickly, sail shapes refined in response to real-world testing. All that time and work also allows the relationship between sailmaker and boatbuilder to develop iteratively rather than in isolation. Ideas and inspirations are shared naturally and freely.
CHAPTER TWO
More Than a Supplier
Ask either party what separates a genuine partnership from a catalogue order, and the answers converge quickly on the same theme: relationships, and the time invested in building them. Both Balance Catamarans and Ullman Sails describe their working dynamic in terms that go well beyond commercial exchange to a closeness built over years of shared problems, shared solutions, and shared customers.
On a practical level, the collaboration is more intensive than most people might expect. For Dallen Roos, engagement with each new Balance build begins months before a boat launches and rarely quietens down from there encompassing not just sails but all canvas work, owner consultations, and the constant stream of calls and adjustments that accompany any custom build. It is, by his own account, a significant portion of his working day.
"Half my day revolves around Balance. If they're not calling, I'm thinking about what we can do better."
For Balance owners, that involvement translates into something tangible: a sailmaker who knows their boat before they do, and who remains a point of contact long after the handover. The personal relationships that form between owners and the Ullman Balance dedicated team (Tony Strutt and Dallen Roos) are a consistent thread through owner feedback, and reflect the same family and community-oriented culture that Balance Catamarans brings to its own customer relationships.
Tony Strutt has been part of that story since day one. A long-standing, foundational member of the Ullman Sails team, he remains closely involved today and works side by side with Dallen Roos. For much of that time Tony directed his focus toward the St. Francis Bay yard, and it is work he still relishes, making the trip up the coast whenever the boats call for it, while Dallen increasingly anchored the Cape Town side.
CHAPTER THREE
Built for the Boat
Designing sails for a performance cruising catamaran demands a different approach to designing for a monohull. Catamarans sail faster, generate more apparent wind, and require a flatter sail profile – particularly in the mainsail, where design must account for the specific mast bend characteristics of each hull. Ullman Sails’ work with both the Balance yards and the Robertson & Caine factory, manufacturers of the Leopard range, has made multihull sailmaking a genuine specialization for the loft.
Each Balance model receives individual attention. Sail design is not simply adapted from one hull to the next because geometry, sheet lead positions, pad eyes, and rig characteristics all vary, and each configuration is developed on its own terms. Owner preference adds a further layer: furling systems, sail choice, and intended sailing grounds all influence the final package. The most consistently popular headsail combination across the fleet has settled around the Axia 50 and Axia 70 – a smaller reaching headsail paired with a larger broad-reach sail – though asymmetrical spinnakers remain a common addition for owners with more downwind ambitions.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Obsidian Question
No single product speaks to the depth of this partnership more clearly than the Obsidian sailcloth which is a laminate developed in close collaboration with Dimension Polyant in Germany, in direct response to the demands of the Balance range.
The problem it was designed to solve is a familiar tension in performance sailing. High-performance sailcloth delivers speed but sacrifices longevity. It is built for short, intense use, not ocean passages. Heavy cruising cloth lasts but compromises performance. For a Balance owner asking their sails to carry them across an ocean and still perform on the other side, well neither extreme is fit for the purpose. Obsidian was conceived to find the ground between them: genuinely performance-oriented, built to last, and priced to reflect both.
"It mirrors exactly what we ask of the boats themselves. I don't think it would be what it is today without this long-standing partnership."
The development was driven by Ullman’s long-standing relationship with Dimension Polyant and their ability to articulate a specific brief, one shaped by years of feedback from the Balance Catamaran fleet. The Axia 50 and 70 headsails tell a similar story: products refined through consistent dialogue between two teams who share the same customers and goals.
CHAPTER FIVE
What the Ocean Teaches
Performance data in the cruising world is rarely gathered in a laboratory. It comes from passages, long, demanding, sometimes punishing ones. Balance owners regularly participate in events such as the Cape2Rio race and the ARC World Rally, often without competitive intent, but have won and frequently finish well ahead of the group. The sails are part of that story.
The consistent signal from experienced owners has reinforced the case for laminate sailcloth across the fleet. Dacron loses its shape over time; laminates retain it and for sailors who know the difference, that matters enormously on a long passage. That feedback, accumulated over two decades, has shaped the standard package that a Balance Catamaran leaves the factory with today.
"What has changed more than anything is our understanding of what suits the boats and their owners better. That understanding has grown over time and it never stops evolving."
Ullman’s global loft network means that wherever a Balance owner sails, service support is rarely far away. With locations across Europe, the Americas, the Pacific, and beyond, repairs, re-cuts, and upgrades can be handled locally. This is a practical consideration that carries real importance because Balance Catamarans are sailing across oceans regularly.
CHAPTER SIX
What Comes Next
The latest model in the Balance range -the 540 – is currently being built and conversations between the two teams have been underway since the earliest designs were discussed. That includes rigging layout, sail shapes, and how best to match the new faster, sleeker hull’s characteristics. It is, as Dallen Roos describes it, the part of the work that never gets old: every new model is a blank canvas presenting a new set of issues to be solved and enhancements to overall performance to be driven.
Today, the partnership shows no signs of settling into routine. Balance has just introduced three new models, the 464, 502, and 540. The loft keeps developing new cloth. The owners keep extending their reach and capabilities around the globe. And always there is that ongoing conversation that drives both performance and innovation.
