Hello there! My name is Etienne Giroire. I am a French-born American citizen. I founded "ATN inc" in 1985 after 15 years of extensive racing, delivering and skippering maxi boats.

It was then the beginning of the development of large cruising sailing yachts and while the machinery , rigging and furling systems were being designed and went along with the technology available at the time, there was no real efficient spinnaker handling device worth mentioning. I had used every one available in the market at the time, and was disappointed every time. They would get stuck and foul frequently and were very unreliable, even when handled by an experienced crew!

I remember checking the spinnaker sleeves of the competitors of the 85/86 BOC (single handed race around the world in 4 legs) in Newport and thinking that the sailmakers could use some help to design and manufacture a good, safe, working spinnaker handling device. That was the beginning of the ATN spinnaker sleeve.

It was fairly easy to show the benefits of a reliable spinnaker dousing device to the sailmakers who are primarily interested in designing and building the spinnaker. I soon had 20 sailmakers ordering sleeves from ATN, and every one of them, after switching to the ATN spinnaker sleeve, had more orders for spinnakers, because they could then cater to a class of customers, who before wouldn't think of flying the spinnaker without an effective device to control it.

We have now manufactured more than 30,000 spinnaker sleeves, 12,000 Tackers, 8,000 Topclimbers and 1500 Gale Sails. We cater to more than 300 sailmakers in the US and abroad.

The ATN Spinnaker Sleeve is distributed by DELTA Voiles in France and Vortex Marine Ltd. in Australia [contact info] and is the spinnaker handling device of choice for the serious offshore sailor around the world: The ATN spinnaker sleeve was standard equipment for the past 2 winners of the "VENDEE GLOBE" (non-stop, single handed race around the world) and the same for the last "Around Alone".

We work in a new, 2500 sq ft shop in Hollywood, Florida and with a crew of 5, we look forward to satisfying your needs.