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.