Improvements

We at North Sails are always looking to improve our product.  After a season of hard work we have looked at our 2009 sails and how they wore out and then made some small changes to our sails construction which should have a big improvement in the way the sails last.

Moth sails take a real hammering when rigging and carrying boats out to launch.  With the sails already built from tough base sail cloth I think a moth mainsail is going to wear out from time spent rigging rather than time spent sailing.

Below is an image of the new light weight rubber bumper on the head of the 2010 sails.  This provides better chafe protection than thick webbing we previously used which tends to get torn up on concrete.

The batten ends, especially on the top battens wear out quickly and risk having the orange tension line which loops over the batten wing tips wear out and break.  All battens now have rubber bumpers on both sides of the batten pockets as in the image below:

With the stiffer masts comes higher downhaul loads.  Some boats are even using 8:1 downhauls.  Originally our sails had press rings, then we switched to webbing loops on the luff sleeves.  However, after more testing we decided to put the press rings back in the sail.  With the high loads we have added a web loop for safety to ensure the ring does not pull out of the sail:

To make the sails easier to rig up we have added side zips to the cams.  This is a popular feature which can really take the headache out of rigging up.  All luff sleeves are now made from a more durable Dacron than the 2009 sails which had a square weave low stretch Dacron which was prone to tearing.  Additionally the front seam on the sleeves is now reinforced with a Teflon tape to ensure that the mast will not tear through the seam and add a little more ruggedness when your sail decides to flip itself over on the pavement while rigging!

With the winter weather starting to take a break in the US testing is about to begin in earnest with hopes of further improvements making it into the product.

Below is an image of the 2009 model V8 on a Southern Spar in 12kts TWS.  The new 2010 sails are slightly more draft forward throughout with more front% (Slightly more knuckle) in the lower sections and more reactive to downhaul in the head for when the breeze comes on.

Please feel free to drop me a note anytime with questions on our sails.  We are always open to suggestions and possible improvements in our product.

Tuning Guide

Successful couple of weeks for North Sails.  Following Chris Graham's win at the UAE Nationals Rob Gough won the slalom.  Brad Funk then got the most out of his V8 to get 3rd in the Worlds.  Not as good as 2009 with the win in the US Champs and the 2nd in the Worlds, but we will take it considering the conditions and expecting more out of the sails as the wind builds.

After about 5 months of development I have finally had some time to put ideas on getting the most out of the North Sails.

Upwind technique:

-More vang improves VMG upwind.  With a 16:1 you should need moderate tension once up and foiling and very tight tension upwind once fully powered up.
-Less vang is better for speed, IE when trying to get to one side of the course or for getting through another boat.
-Once fully powered up, IE TWS greater than 14-15kts max vang
-Downhaul should be fairly loose in marginal conditions, as the TWS increases the downhaul should be pulled until you can sail with a full sail.  If your weather tell tales are luffing then you need more downhaul, if your leeward tell tales are luffing ease the downhaul.
-Once fully overpowered upwind max downhaul and vang as hard as you can pull
-Outhaul about 150mm off boom in light winds and 100mm in breeze, never tighter than 100mm
-Shroud tension tighter for power, looser if overpowered, typically leeward shroud just loose
-Flat to slight heel to weather in light wind to power rig up as much as possible.  More heel to weather as the windspeed increases.  Heel to weather more for high mode and flatter for fast mode.  Keep in mind that more heel reduces the apparent wind angle and the effective sail area.
-Ride height as high as possible without rudder ventilating

Downwind technique:

-Outhaul eased LOTS.  Probably foot of the sail 200-250mm from boom, 8mm bungee wrapped around leech helps the outhaul ease, as does Ultra High Molecular Weight Plastic Tape under your boom and large clew tie lines or a Velcro strap.
-Vang cracked, but not too much.  Just enough to make gybing easier seems about right.
-C-Ham eased till there are just wrinkles on luff in light wind, a little less in breeze.
-When heating up for speed add a little more downhaul especially if fully powered up.
-Hike when enough pressure to hike against and still feel good apparent wind pressure, but don't make it a priority to hike unless you can hike hard to increase speed and carry the building apparent windspeed down to a similar angle as a non-hiking angle.
-Heel is flat in most wind conditions, but slight to weather once hiking hard
-Ride height as high as one dares depending on the windspeed

Taking a page from big boat racing, a good set of targets can be helpful.  I am using this as my starting point.  Obviously a good guess is required on the approximate windspeed.  Downwind Speeds are a little more approximate, maybe the top guys are a few knots quicker downwind as the breeze increases:

I'd be happy to hear peoples comments on what makes them go faster.

Congratulations to Simon, Amac and Brad

Congratulations to Simon, Amac and Brad.  Three very worthy competitors, hard working sailors and three really great guys who have used their experience to finish atop a tough field in even tougher conditions.

Thanks to the DOSC, Puma, CST, Chris Graham, Glenn Raphael and Sailing Anarchy for organizing another great Moth Worlds.

So clearly I am not going to win the blog worlds with my last blog post.  Never has a truer statement been made than Dave Lister's Mothcast comment, "You blog, you lose."  At the time I thought Dave was talking about losing races.  I have been loosing races for 25 years before blogs were invented- so what's to loose?  Obviously a blog sets oneself up for a faux pas.

It is interesting how a blog is in it's simplest for a diary or a way for people to express their opinions.  The problem with opinions is that everyone has them and usually 50% of the population is going to disagree with you.  More to follow on NORTH sails in the future.

Sail Development

It has been a very interesting worlds, especially looking at how different sails are performing.  I think all the sail designers have concentrated on having one sail which suits all winds- this is always compromise in some conditions and some sails do this better than others.  The Hyde sails perform well in marginal foiling conditions, the Raptor sails are high wind sails, and the KA and North Sails more all purpose designs.

Brief Summary Moth Sails from a designers perspective:

Raptor- These sails were all the hype coming into the worlds.  Unfortunately, my friends, Bora, Dalton and Bear are under-performing relative to the more competitive worlds of 2009.  The reality is two boat sail testing can lead to different shapes than race testing- we learn this in the America's Cup and in keel boats all the time!  I guess building 18 free sails tends to build up loyalty.  The Raptor sails are pushing the limit of flattness for racing in light winds.  The Raptor sails are also close cousins to windsurf designs.  Remember the only similarity between moth sails and windsurf sails is that both sails use cams.  Windsurfers have about a third of the righting moment, very soft unsupported rigs, unlimited sail area, limited sail adjustments, rarely go upwind and are used in more wind than moths would likely rig up in- the net result is flat, large (Relative to the available righting moment) twisty sails, and lots of sails in ones quiver. 

Hyde- Hats off to Mike for making it to the worlds and putting in a good performance so far.  Clearly these sails are the opposite to the Raptor designs and are performing well in the lighter winds.  The original North Sails started out with very similar depth distribution as the current Hyde sails and by the time the 2009 worlds came along the North sails evolved to be deeper down low and flatter up high.

KA Sails- What can one say, nothing beats strength in numbers!  With half the fleet using KA sails it is going to be hard for KA not to have another great result. Amac, as always, has done his homework several years ago and keeps a lot of the top guys running his gear.  Next week we will post some pictures and scans showing the differences between the KA and V8 sail shapes on the water.

North Sails- The North Sails team has taken a bit of hit this year with Rohan, Nathan, Kevin Hall and Morgan Larson out of Moth sailing for 2010.  Hopefully we see them back sometime soon.  Much appreciation for Brad Funk, Chris Graham and Rob Gough helping tune our product and putting in some good results!  Clearly Chris and Brad are moving the right direction relative to 2009- keep it up. 

The 2010 North designs have evolved into slightly flatter and more draft forward sails with an improved twist profile.  Some of these changes are due to the progression of stiffer masts over the last year.  After the worlds we will have to decide if this was taken too far or if the light air of Dubai is an fluke.  We have also dropped the V6 design to help reduce the choice of sails available- quite frankly this was pretty confusing for some sailors to decide what to buy.  The demise of Bladerider and hopefully the end of sailors trying to use the soft Bladerider masts also propagated this change.


Next week we will also outline some of the improvements to the 2010 North Moth Sails.  Apart from the ongoing shape development, a lot of work has been done to help increase the durability of the North Sails in collaboration with Kai Hopf from North Windsurf.   These are very expensive pieces of equipment and we want to make sure our clients get the best value for their sails.

Good luck to everyone for the final days of the worlds.