Welcome to the Ragged Edge…
I’m Sian, and together with my partner, Tom, run Ragged Edge, our small business that was born from our shared love of sailing. In fact, sailing is how we met back in 2017, but that is a story for another time!
Firstly, I'll tell you a little bit about the business - Tom initially started Ragged Edge in 2021, to offer the UAE’s sailing yacht community a reliable, comprehensive and affordable rigging service, and over the course of a year he attracted the attention of several global marine brands with the agreement to represent them in the UAE. Mostly these were rigging-specific brands, but quickly Tom's customers started asking for products as well. So it became clear that there was room for growth!
For that first year, I'd been helping Tom a bit behind the scenes, getting the website set up, helping him with invoicing some customers, that sort of thing. But as the list of brand partnership grew, so did the amount of work. So at the beginning of 2023, I joined the business to launch the retail side of Ragged Edge, and now I handle all the 'product' side of things.
So these days, Ragged Edge is several things (although ALL related to sailing and sailing boats): we are a yacht rigging servicing team, we are a sailing and water sports chandlery, and we are a procurement team. We also provide sailing racing events support services, you can read more about that in a coming blog post.
So why us? Well, we're both active sailors, we both sail on different fleets in different boats and race whatever races we can, both onshore and offshore. While we are based in Dubai, UAE, we won't say no to an international regatta! In fact, next month we're both going to Thailand for racing.
Tom brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table, with over a decade of experience in yacht rigging, sail boat management, international deliveries, and around-the-cans, coastal and offshore racing. Safe to say – he knows boats!
Before moving to Dubai in 2020, Tom lived in Phuket for almost a decade - hence the Thailand racing trip!
Even though I've been sailing since I was 8 (which is more years than I care to admit to), my work background is in a totally different field; I had a long career in hospitality interior design, then became an entrepreneur when I launched an award-winning sustainable fashion retail business, which I ran for almost a decade before moving on.
Right now we have a small team working with us; Muaz and Parn both work on the rigging projects with Tom, and Mudassar works on the retail brands.
So that the brief introduction to 'us', you'll be hearing and seeing a lot more about us and from us in the coming months. Feel free to drop a little comment or like in the comments section below!
Cheers,
Sian & Tom
‘Ragged Edge’ meaning:
Noun
The extreme edge, like that of a precipice; verge.
‘On the Ragged Edge’ meaning:
Idiom
‘in a dangerous or precarious position; on the brink of:’
‘dangerously close to loss of control.’