Today NorthSails announced the launch of their brand new racing sail, the NorthSails WARP F2013. NorthSails put a great team together and worked with sail designer Kai Hopf and worked hard to improve the WARP.
It’s important to realize how much correct sail tuning can affect performance and your fun on the water. Downhaul tension and the overall luff curve of the sail is affected by the downhaul measurement, so it is very important to achieve the optimal setting for your session.
You probably know about the luff measurement marked on your sail, for example 12cm, and you set your base to 12cm. But did you know each manufacture might have slightly different measurements, so if you are using a different brand extension this could be crucial. So although not noticeable to the eye, a centimeter can make a large difference So use this method to confirm your specs.
When designing sails, manufacturers measure the downhaul from the bottom of the mast to the perpendicular projection of the bottom corner of the sail pulley. That information is
then printed in the sail.
The downhaul is one of the most crucial steps to rigging. It controls the shape of your windsurfing sail and can’t be changed while sailing. Finally, confirm that your tack pulley is as close to the base pulley as possible.
Check out the video where Artur Szpunar of Maui Sails explains how to tune and measure your downhaul settings according to the sail specification box.
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Quatro shaper Keith Teboul discusses setting up a Quatro board with fixed fins. Although targeted to the Quatro’s fixed fin setup, his basic principles are the same for all boards.
Footstraps – Back for a quicker shorter turn, and forward for a longer turn with more drive. Also Heavier you may want to be more forward and lighter sailors further back.
Mast Track – Back for easier tighter turning, and forward for more drive.
Don’t be afraid to go out and come back in to adjust settings!
This is the first footage of the first prototype from Starboard that worked amazingly well for Dany Bruch. It is his “dream board” creation project for light winds and mushy waves, based on existing real surfboards.
After this video some more prototypes were build to have all details worked out in perfection and to be added to the final master board. The “Black Box” is now in production, has been added to the 2014 Starboard board range and will be in the shops by mid 2013.
A clip with production board Nº 00001 and more details will be coming soon.
It’s in French but here’s a look at the 2013 AHD AFS-1 board. The AFS-1 is a hydrofoil windsurfer (probably the only production hydrofoil windsurfer) that aims to provide speed 3 times faster than the wind speed in greater than 7 knots of wind. If you’re interested you can pick one up for a mear $7450 USD, alternatively you can get a whole new quiver.
Ride with MauiSails and Micah Buzianis as they demo the TR-9 and TR-9xt 2013 MauiSails race sails.
How about some strapless windsurfing for Christmas?
Never miss a day on the water with this is in your quiver. The AHD Sealion was developed with a concept to get you on the water from 0 – 15 knots. Bruno André demonstrates the Sealion in 3 sports on the same day, from SUPing, to lightwind sailing and finally some strapless wave action.
Remi Villa talks Sam Ross though the new ready to race Drake fins which now come as standard on the 2013 Starboard iSonics but can be used with the Futuras. This is definitely worth a watch and almost everyone can pick up something.
Peter Ross talks about the new 2013 OES Smack Quad 85L, and demos the wave action in NW Australia on the new board.
The Simmer Competition Race is designed and manufactured for high performance competitive racing- slalom and speed. It presents the cutting edge in race sail design, with the optimal symmetry between aerodynamics, material selection and design. A symmetry defined by our goal, to create the best Competition Race sail in the world.
The Godzilla is a high performance light wind freerace / GPS board designed for the real world rider. The concept is basic: control = speed. Its available in 150L and made for sails from 7.0 – 11 m. This is the kind of board you need in your quiver to get out on those days when your friends are sitting on the beach.
With all the attention turned to speed sailing in the last few days here`s a video from Simmer featuring There Monster GPS / Slalom board.
The Simmer Freemove, simmer has taken some extreme concepts and combined them to create an extremely all-round and versatile board. The rocker is a super fast freeride version of the low drag curves that we developed for their Fly Quad and Freewave boards. Combining the thin deck shape with the boxy rails, the board delivers excellent acceleration and high top-end speed, while still maintaining control and balance. The performance-oriented rocker and rails are combined with a versatile, wide and curvy outline. Together with the carefully constructed v flow a good degree of lift is provided allowing for larger sails and heavier riders. Other features are easy jibing all though the speed range.
In this video Hot Sails Maui Sail Designer Tom Hammerton talks about becoming a sail designer, work with Hot Sails Maui and gives an insight into the 2012 and 2013 versions of the GPS race sail.
Developed by Jean Louis Colmas in 1984, Wood Technology became Starboard’s trademark construction since 1995. A sheet of 0.6 mm Australian plantation pine wood forms the full outer shell of the board. Wood’s unique properties are its natural rigidity, superior resistance to compression and higher energy absorption compared to carbon. The advantages of wood in a board are rigid flex and more impact resistant than Carbon. In choppy conditions a Wood board is maybe more forgiving than a carbon construction. The Carbon construction has advantages on the light wind racing models or bigger wave boards where the key criteria are acceleration efficiency, weight and maximum hull stiffness (slalom, speed). Starboard offers the wood technology on almost all models (wave boards, free ride boards and Slalom boards). During the last years also other companies, like JP, Fanatic or Tabou have discovered the wood technology but offer it only for selected models and mostly for beginners or advanced sailors.
