Your Go To Shade Sail Company

Director and Founder of SD Sails, Simon Dawkins has dedicated his entire working career to the art of textile fabrication.

Having competed as a professional windsurfer in the 80’s and 90’s, Simon achieved numerous national and international windsurfing titles using sails he personally designed and manufactured by hand.

Fast-forward 30 years, Simon now not only directs the company, but also plays an active part in the technical CAD design of the products, personally handling many of the more complex projects, as well as bringing his knowledge and experience to the whole design and production team.

Still an avid recreational windsurfer, Simon is also a passionate sailor and skier, and enjoys hiking in the great outdoors.

Having worked up through every aspect of production and design over 10 years, Simon Haslett has built up a wealth of knowledge and experience in the company, which he now filters through to staff and clients alike as Project Manager.

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Simon is co-director at CSI, the sister company of SD Sails, set up to handle all site-related work for our end-user clients. In the dual-capacity, Simon personally oversees the project work to ensure the highest standards and customer satisfaction. Simon is a busy man in and out of the office, where his hands-on experience in both areas is invaluable to the overall success of the project.

A true family-man at heart, Simon enjoys motorsport, quad and motocross biking, and spending time with his family and friends.

New to the SD Sails team in 2022, Nick Puttick joins us with a wealth of knowledge and experience in the industry from Arc-can Shade Structures. As a long-time client of SD Sails, Nick’s understanding of exactly what is possible, means he can handle bespoke enquiries with speed and efficiency, whilst ensuring the clients get well-considered solution.

Working hand-in-hand with the design team, Nick is also excellent at producing accurate proposal drawings and images to bring our canopy solutions to life, which then transition perfectly into the production design process if they go ahead.

Nick’s experience in structural design also marries perfectly with the technical requirements of CSI’s services, meaning we can offer a wide range of canopy solutions to meet every budget.

With a young family to keep him busy, Nick is a keen Formula 1 fan, with their winner’s podium canopy structure amongst his portfolio of work.