Minney’s Yacht Surplus is a Southern California institution where boaters can buy, sell and trade boating equipment. It is owned and operated Ernie Minney of Newport Beach. Ernie was raised aboard his father’s 65’ schooner “Kelpie” and after graduating from Cal Maritime Academy in 1959, Ernie sailed aboard Kelpie with his dad and brothers on a years cruise to Tahiti and back. Shortly after returning from Tahiti, Ernie and his dad George started Minney’s Yacht Surplus which in short order became the #1 source of good used boat gear and sails in So. Calif. Ernie in 1977 skippered his lovely 68’ schooner “Shearwater” on a family cruise that ended up being a 40,000 mile circumnavigation. Ernie is an experienced ocean racer and has served as watch captain on many of largest ocean racers on the West Coast. Ernie’s surplus warehouse usually has over 1000 good used sails in stock. Ernie personally measures and appraises every sail that leaves his store. He’s a tough buyer and an easy seller. To this date he has held the line and his highest price sail has never been more that $1500.00. Can you imagine the surprise when the owners of a large ocean racer in Australia unpacked a brand new North $35,000.00 Kevlar-Carbon fiber mainsail from Roy Disney’s monster race boat “Pyewacket” that they paid $1495.00 for!!!! All sails that are purchased from Minney’s may be returned for any reason for a full refund (less shipping) if for any reason you are unhappy with them. The only exception is our “fair and poor condition” sails. These are sails that have merit but might have bad stains, worn leeches, sun cooked leeches and roller furling covers etc. etc. These sails are usually in the $50.00 to $200.00 price range and it is possible to spend more on shipping than the cost of the sail. A sailing club in South America purchased 40 of these sails, a hotel with tree house bungalows in Costa Rica purchased 25 of these sails, recently clothing manufactures have been buying these sails. If you purchase one of these sails and sincerely feel the value wasn’t there, please let Ernie know and he’ll probably send you a full refund and tell you to keep the sail! Please know that all sails are measured a 2nd time before they are shipped to you and photos can be supplied if you ask for them. The crew at Minney’s motto is “we keep boating affordable” and from the positive imput we receive from our customers in all parts of the world, we think we are doing a pretty good job. If you have sails to sell, send us a list and we’ll send you an offer. Have a great day…………ernie minney
