The Shaderunner® Story

Over 50 years in the making

In Adelaide during the 1980s, Father Haydn, along with sons Mark and Wayne Soulsby combined their unique skillset as champion yachtsman and sailmakers, to extend their business into the Shading Industry.

Using their expert craftmanship plus the high-level of precision and attention to detail required to create race winning yacht sails, they carried this level of professionalism into their newly created Shading venture named SHADEFORM SAILS.

Their 50 plus years sailing experience, along with the family’s yacht rigging knowledge, was the catalyst to develop a simple but unique retractable sail system.

By applying special marine grade yacht fittings, typically found on many championship sailing boats, this shading system was able to be built lightweight, but also with the strength to handle harsh Australian climates.

Refined and re-developed now for over 30 years, this retractable sail system is known today as the Shaderunner®.

A unique, one-of-a-kind design

The Shaderunner is typically supported by 2 Stainless Steel Wires, for most canopy sizes, which makes it very unobtrusive to the eye.

Aluminium cross supports within the fabric enable the Sail to reach a maximum width of 6.5m. Ronstan marine grade ball bearing pulleys are attached to these cross supports, and these pulleys run along the wires in a frictionless motion.

The operation is a simple endless cord system, that when pulled in one direction will extend the sail, and then when pulled in the opposite direction will retract the sail. The control cord is then secured off around a sailing type horn cleat on a post or wall to secure the sail into position.

The Shaderunner® travels along the support wires in a concertina fashion and will stack back in the retracted position.

This makes the Shaderunner® retractable sail ideal for Swimming Pools, Courtyards, Decks, Entertaining areas etc. for both residential & commercial applications.

It is little wonder that the Shaderunner® has become a market leader in this area both in Australia and around the World!