Burns FallowBurns joined North Sails in 1988 having completed a Masters degree in engineering. Burns' technical background has put him at the forefront of developing North Sails analysis tools, including our Membrain stress analysis and flow/VPP tools.

Burns has now done five America's Cup campaigns with Team New Zealand. Originally he specialised as an upwind sail designer (complementing Mickey Ickert's role), but he has headed the sail program for the team since 2000 in both a design and administrative sense. 

Additionally Burns has designed sails for many other grand prix projects over the years, ranging from Melges 32 and TP52s to Round the world campaigns. Also Burns was one of the first sail designers of very large in-boom furling mainsails on mega yachts. Burns also maintains a very close working relationship with 3DL and has initiated several product developments there.