Rick McBride and Phil Leitch, both well known and successful local West Coast sailors started Leitch and McBride Sails in 1976 and located their new business in Sidney, B.C. Located on the top floor of in a building on the corner of First and Bevan Street the business grew rapidly driven by demand for the quality products being produced at the loft. Soon after the opening of the Sidney location, Brett Willetts opened an affiliated Leitch and McBride service loft in North Vancouver. In 1981, driven by the need for more space, Rick moved the Sidney loft to a space on Mills Road. In 1982 Phil Leitch left the organization to pursue other business interests. The Mills Road Loft suffered smoke damage from a fire in an neighboring building so another move was required. Rick and Wendy purchased a unit in the new Sidney Industrial Park and had a purpose built loft constructed from the ground up. The building still provides us with a perfect location to build, inspect, repair and service a huge variety of sails for dinghies up to recreational yachts of 100 feet.

In 1983 Rick added CAD design software, SMSW and a Carlson plotter to increase accuracy and speed up the production of new sails. At that time, Leitch and McBride, was the most technologically advanced production loft on the West Coast of North America. We were the first independent loft to adopt the then new design software that was just being introduced on the market. In 1993, driven by the need for more space Rick purchased a new building and moved the business again, to its present location, a purpose-built loft on McDonald Park Rd. At that time, the only purpose built sail manufacturing location on the West Coast. Leitch and McBride Sails became a sales agent for Sobstad Sails in May of 2007, so that the loft could provide a state-of-the-art, string product, in the form of Genesis.

In 2010, Paul Betts joined Rick and Wendy at the Sidney loft, bringing his expertise in systems, hardware, rigging and sail making. Colleen Miscovitch was hired in 2011,bringing with her a blend of experience not only in sail making, but also in customer service, computer work, and sailing, both locally and across the South Pacific.

Rick and Wendy sold the loft to Paul in January 2012. Rick, now retired, spends time golfing and is available to consult when needed. Wendy stayed on with the business until May 2013, and has now "retired" in her own special way. This means she is busier than ever with her many friends and recreational activities, as well as teaching sewing at the local community college. Leitch and McBride still designs and build their sails in North America, using only quality materials and cloth supplied by Challenge, Bainbridge, and Dimension Sailcloth. Rick's designs have stood the test of time, and the loft has 40 years of designs on file. Often we have more than one design for a boat to use as reference.