Hot Sails Tales

Go Fast!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:42:00 +0000

By Tom

This is the craziest speed event I have ever seen! How fast can you make a Go board go?

Pretty immpressive huh? This is Bertrand Fougere winning the French Starboard Go Challenge with an incredible 35.5 knots with a GPS 2009 6.6 that I just sent to France for testing. For those of you who speak French:

http://icks.icks.free.fr/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2106

Windfishing

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 22:47:00 +0000

By Tom

I was on the mainland for my birthday so I really milked it and mangaged to pull off an extra birthday beach BBQ at Sprecks last Sunday. It was supposed to be a Speed day, but the wind was onshore at 5-8 knots so the speed got postponed. There were at least half a dozen SUP boards at the beach enjoying the conditions.

I decided to try my windfishing rig. It is very simple with a fish bag on the nose and a hand line attached to the mastfoot. I trolled a local style whipping rig. It has a small float 4 feet ahead of a small jelly lure. The idea is that the float makes lots of spray and bubbles which attracts the fish. The fish then sees the small bite size lure and chomp - fish on! This is of course the theory although I had never caught anything with this rig. I did a coulple of runs over the reef, but decided the lure was too close. I stopped and let out another 30 feet of line and gave it another shot.

The float disappeared under the water and I thought I had a small fish. When I dropped the rig and started pulling the line in nothing pulled back. I assumed I had broken the float off and just sailed to the beach. I put my board up on the beach and then pulled the line in, and to my surprise there was a good sized Omilu on the end of it!

Needless to say the fish went straight on the BBQ along with a nice Palani that Diony speared free-diving. It was a great BBQ and a lot of fun was had by all!

Tom's Travels

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:25:00 +0000

OK so I have not posted in a while, and I am sorry 'cause I meant to. The trouble is I have not been in the same country for more than in a week for the last 6 weeks!
I have gone from Hawaii to China for a week, then back to Hawaii, off to Morocco the next week then back to Hawaii, then Canada, mainland, Canada and finally back to Maui. Home at last! I will be in the same time zone at least until September now , when Anne and I have a wedding in Annapolis, Maryland to attend.

Schenzen, China.

Thai food with (L to R) Urs, Chrissie, Betty and myself. Qingyuan, China.

New Yellow Fire 2009.

So in summary I went to China to get 2009 sails ready for production, then Morocco to present the 2009 collection to the distributors. The sails are looking very good and I first saw the new X-ply colours in China. I am very stoked as the blue and yellow came out perfect and the sails look even better than the colour mock up drawings. I had one week back on Maui to tie up the loose ends for 2009 before I went to Morocco to present them.

The Beach at Sidi Kaouki.

Jeff and Tom shopping in a Moroccan marketplace.

Forward Loop on a Liquid by Tom.

I managed to drop the Jetski on my foot, luckily on the last day, but the injury prevented me from windsurfing the next week on Maui.

Tom, Ala, and Jeff - Team Hot!

Last night in Morocco waiting for the 2am taxi to the airport with German and Dutch guys.

After Morocco 2009 was done and I had one week back on Maui to prepare for a two week holiday. The main purpose of the mainland trip was to go to my Dad's wedding in Ajax near Toronto. Anne's parents live in northern PA so we went down there to visit for a week first. I managed to get a few days trout fishing in and hooked up to fish every time! I was very dissapointed when I caught a really nice sized Trout and just as I was leaning down to grab it off the edge of the bank the hook came out and I lost it. DOH! That was the only day I did not land a fish.

The Bride and Groom with yours truly The Best Man!

Anyways We went back up to Torronto for the Wedding and I donned a suit. Unfortunately my dress shoes I only wear once a year and they cut through my heels - ouch. They will be donated to charity. The wedding was followed by a couple of days up on Georgian bay at Blue Mountain (looks like a small hill to me) with my Dad Robbie, and his new bride Bev. Canada is a great place and we thoughly enjoyed it. I did manage to sink a rental kayak (twice) due to the fact it had a crack in the bow and no bungs in the drains. Luckily the nearshore of the lake is very shallow.

Tom and Anne relaxing Canadian style in Georgian Bay, Ontario.

It was a great holiday and very nice to be able to spend some time with family, but we were both very happy to be back home on Maui.

Leon goes nuts

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:27:00 +0000

Germany wiz kid Leon Jamaer takes windsurfing and his Fire sail to new places. Downtown Kiel, in Germany he entered an extreme sports event sailing his skateboard. The image pretty well sums things up.

GPS in France

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:02:00 +0000

Here is Tom's handy work doing some go fast in the English Channel. Check out some cool details on the GPS at this forum:
http://www.u-ride.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=57292#57292

Hot Sail in winning photo!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:45:00 +0000

German team rider Leon Jamaer was featured in this year's winning photo of the Stehsegelrevue Photo contest. Got to admit, that is a pretty cool shot! Congrats to photographer Blaz Hocevar who took the awesome shot.
Results of the photo contest can be seen at: http://www.stehsegelrevue.com/fotowettbewerb/winner2008

2008 Distributor's meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:38:00 +0000

Tom, Ala and I have just wrapped up the first ever Hot Sails Maui distributor's meeting and we had a great time. Lots of new faces and now new friends were made during this nearly week long event in Morocco.
The setting was exotic to say the least. Set on the Atlantic coast near the old port city of Essaouira, the windsurf center of Sidi Kaouki presented a near perfect situation for distributors from around the world to join us for some education and fun.

This event was to educate our distributors about next seasons products and designs so they can prepare for 2009. Seminars were done in a real Berber tent right on the windy beach. The mid day times were for doing some testing of the coming gear.

Silly sailing

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:27:00 +0000

Sailing for the fun of it, My Brother and nephew enjoy a day of sailing on the weekend.

Those Crazy (and sexy) Germans

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:09:00 +0000

This in from Our German distributor:
"I produced the Hot Logo on these throw-away tattoos and gave them away for free. Everybody had the 4 days of the festival time to make a cool picture with himself and the tattoo. Now we have a online voting and the winner gets a sail for free. I did put it online 3 hours ago and we already have 174 votes!"

Here you can have a look of the final photos in the contest:

http://www.hotsails.de/index.php?kat1=tattoovoting2008

San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:05:00 +0000

I was at Coyote Point near SFO on Saturday afternoon. The wind was almost happening then backed off. Still some people mucked about in the lighter wind and I got a chance to catch up with the south bay sailors at the NEW STORE there. Sergey Menshikov even had me sign his sail!
Yes, Jane and Rebecca (Boardsports School)have taken over the Coyote point lifeguard building and turned it into a great demo center and shop. If your flying through SFO, it is 5 minutes from the airport, so stop and by for a sail on your next layover. They have a full selection of Super Freaks and some Fluids and Divas rigged and ready to go, wetsuits included!
----------------------------------------------------------------

I am not a city person, but San Francisco rocks. Water everywhere, topography that thrills, and WIND. Oh, and WINDSURFERS!
Sunday was a late start at Chrissy Field after a beating of a run my friend Ben took me on in the hills of Marin. At 4:00pm the wind kicked in and sailors were scrambling to rig down from their biggest sails to smaller ones. There were a lot of Hot Sails on the water which I was stoked to see.

Here Rebecca and John Newman look on as I offer some rigging tips. It was good to be able to help sailors tune up their rigs. It seems nearly everyone needed a batten tensioning, so please remember to keep those battens snug and taught!

Ross Libenson had never tried a Super Freak, and spent the whole day on the 6.3, and then the 5.3 and was stoked enough to buy one that day. As he had never thought of sailing one he had a lot to learn on the subtleties of tuning them across the wind range.

Under the Golden Gate bridge on a 5.0m Super Freak. Nothing shows up more than a Freak from a distance.
Special thanks to Jane, Rebecca (Boardsports School) and Abilgal for helping this weekend come together, even it was 2 years later than planned! Also to the host of San Francsico, John Newman who took me out for an awesome dinner at La Traviata in the Mission. Killer food, great prices.

California dreaming

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:28:00 +0000

Mike Higgins on his new 6.3m hits it backside.

(Jeff reporting in)
I took the red eye to the west coast and arrived Thursday in a dream state. On the drive over I was so sleep deprived I had to pull over on 17 and pass out for 30 minutes so I did not crash. Beat, but was welcomed by master of sail repair, Joe Dihl. The cool Pacific water and a hot chocolate at the roadhouse woke me right up though!

Joe hooked me up with a nice Quatro 76 (or similar) and we hit the small but very fun waves at Davenport.
I was on a new 09 UL 5.3m tester and it loved the glassy slightly onshore wave there. Not as cold as I expected, did not even go numb! Highlight of the session was the otter who was munching just outside the break. Really beautiful, wild spot.
Thanks to Joe who sailed into the sunset for the great loaner!

That is me in a 5/3 wetsuit! Brrr, but only a little.

Photoshoot Frenzy

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:04:00 +0000

Post by Tom

The last week has been crazy with both the Starboard and Mistral photoshoots going on.

The Bonaire kids Bjorn and Jurgen flew over accompanied by their father Patton, and have been staying with Jeff. Below is a couple of shots from one of the shoots at Jeff's house. Note: these are not the actual pictures for Starboard just some snapshots we got.

Bjorn on a 4.3 DD

Bjorn spinning on a Crossfire

Ida jumps from the nose of Jurgens board.

Bjorn gets massive air off nothing!

Meanwhile Taka and Diony have been ripping it up for the Mistral shoot. I don't have much in the way of pics right now unfortunately.

The boys from Severne Sails were also in town and it was good to catch up with Ben Severne. He is an old friend of mine and actually worked for me at one point in the mid-nineties doing sail repair. We got to hang out at Jaques and complain about eveything windsurfing industry related and remember the "good old days". Jaques was a who's who of windsurfing last Friday night and it was great to see so many old friends.

In other news, I managed to post my fastest single speed run ever on Sunday hitting a peak speed of 39.1 knots. I know everyone is bored with all the speed postings so if you are interested check out my session at the link below, if you are not interested then just skip it!

http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/gps.asp?mnu=user&val=29222&uid=2626&cnt=United%20States

Sailboat Racing

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:10:00 +0000

Post by Tom
Pics from: http://www.mauisailingnews.com/ courtesy John Pope

The weekend usually finds me on or in the water in some way. There are many ways to enjoy the ocean apart from windsurfing. Last Saturday I went to Lahina to race in the Maui Boat and Yacht Club's Lahina inshore races.

I crew on Mike Moyers Express 27 "Lono". I had the pleasure of sail trimming, which consisted of winching in the genoa and flying the spinaker on the downwind runs. Our club is quite small and there are only a handful of boats that race regulary. Snickers an Olson 30 and Boondoggle a ridiculously quick J80 were the only other boats racing.

Lono (left) tacks, crossing in front of Snickers (right)

The fleet sails downwind under spinnaker. Lono has the brand new blue spinaker being flown by yours truly.

We had some very good racing with only one cock-up on our boat when we had the spinnaker on the wrong side of the boat to launch. We thought we had won the last race, but as we race under handicap we had to wait for the numbers to be crunched to find out the final results. At the end of the day Boondoggle beat us by 10 seconds sweeping the day with three victories. We finished with three second places. It was a fun day on the water and I am sure we will get Boondoggle on the next race!

The great thing about MBYC races is the Pizza and Beer after!

Best Speed So Far

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:17:00 +0000

Post by Tom

I meant to post this a week ago, but I got busy. So here it is now. I just copied from my GPS Speedsurfing session page:

Profile
Name : Tom Hammerton
Sail number : K75
Sponsor(s) : Hot Sails Maui
Home spot : -, -
Height : 175 cm
Weight : 91.0 kg
Age : 37

Session info
Date : Monday, March 31, 2008
Spot : Spreckelsville, Maui, United States
Board : F2 Missile
Sail : Hotsails GPS 6.0
Fin : Vector Fins proto speed 26
GPS type : Navi GT-11
Average speed : 36.08 knots (36.6 36.4 36.0 36.0 35.4)
Max. 2 sec. (software) : 37.5 knots
100 m run : 37.2 knots
250 m run : 35.7 knots
500 m run : 31.2 knots
Distance : 18.0 km
Windspeed : 27 knots
Windgusts : 4 knots
Remarks : This was a bit of a suicidal session. The tide was below 1 foot and I don't normally sail the lower reef less than that. But the wind was steady and the direction perfect so I gave it a go. It became apparent on the first run it was very shallow - but I started so I wanted to finish. I did my best to dodge the coral heads but I still hit my fin 3 times. Luckily no serious damage was done. I did my 5 runs then packed it in as the tide was still dropping. I was happy with the results as I had put in four good runs and a fith that was still fast despite being a little underpowered. Overall about another 5 knots of wind would have been better as these were more finese runs than I normally do. Still that leaves something on the table for next time!
Best 5 x 10 speed so far so I can't really complain! Might be time for a new fin though.

36.1 knots is the second best (5 x 10) speed posted in the USA so far this year! I will enjoy boasting about this while I still can, as I know that will slip somewhat when the fast guys start posting!

2009 Flatwater and Crossover Photoshoot

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:30:00 +0000

Post by Tom
Photos by Anne Leete

Wednesday we did a photoshoot for the Flatwater and Crossover sails. Ray Mangan was shooting pics from the beach by Jeff's house at Camp One. My fiance Anne Leete came down and snapped a few pics with our camera too. The photos below are some of the images she captured.

The wind was a bit light and did not quite fill in as we had hoped. Ida was out on the 4.3 DD, but did not have quite enough wind.

Ida on DD 4.3

Japanese wave monster Taka came down to join in the fun and tried out the Liquid, Speed Demon and GPS.

Tom and Taka on the beach

Jay Spocks a Crossfire

Jay Lee put the Crossfire 5.0 through it's paces showing us a wide range of freestyle moves. I think he started the challenge to see how close to the beach you can sail!

Ray shoots, Hessel on longboard with Ala, and Ida on The DD

The light winds at the start of the session were perfect for the 5.5 Liquid on the Longboard. Our engineer Hessel enjoyed taking Ala for a ride.

Hessel gybes the longboard with the Liquid

Getting closer to the beach!

Left to Right: Andreas on Liquid, Taka on Speed Demon, Tom on GPS

The group shot is always a challenge, but it helps to have good sailors that trust each other and know what they are doing. Columbian ripper Andreas Joined Taka and myself to make it happen. The sailing got very close and the gybing got very late. Apparently we started to scare the people on the beach!

Tom on a 6.6 GPS

Ray shoots Tom gybing the GPS

Ray worked hard for a couple of hours until the sun got too far overhead. He took something like 370+ pics! Ala kindly brought food for lunch after the shoot which was greatly appreciated.

Thanks to all the sailors - Hessel, Taka, Ida, Andreas, Jay, Tom.

Thanks also to Ray and Anne for the photos and thanks to Ala and Sierra for the support.

That was a fun day at the office!

First Test of 2009 GPS

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Posted by Tom
Photos by Bob Gilbert

Wednesday is a sail testing day and yesterday I got to test the first 2009 GPS 6.0 protoype and the new wide boom.

The winds showed around 30mph on Iwindsurf and the tide was good between 1 and 2 feet. I met Eric Beale at Sprecks at 2pm and Bob was there to document the afternoon. The wind proved very gusty and shifty with definate asymetry (different directions at different heights). At times it felt like the wind was blowing down and it was dificult to lift a rig on the beach or waterstart - very strange.

I initially rigged the sail too full as the super wide boom maked it look flatter than it really was. I quickly ended up at maximum downhaul to help deal with the gusts which helped a lot on Starboard tack but made going upwind on Port a real chore. I had meant to put an adjustable outhaul on but did not find the time. After this session I will definately make the time!

Erik Beale and Tom Hammerton discuss the conditions

The water was very rough, but there were a few good lanes that would periodically open up on the lower section of the reef. Unfortunately the wind had about 5 degrees too much east in it and the course was a little too broad. It all came together on one run and I posted a 35.7 knot 10 second run. I was very happy with this as 35 knots had been the stated goal for the day. It was definately a little hairy, but I only had one high speed crash. I did however manage to cut both heels!

Check out my Session below:

http://www.gps-speedsurfing.com/gps.asp?mnu=user&val=28374&uid=2626&cnt=

This is a new personal best for 5 x 10 seconds 34.38knots!

I was totally exhausted by the end of the day but very happy!

Stay tuned for upcoming details of the 2008 Maui Vmax speed ladder Eric, Marc and I are putting together.

Diony In Cape Verde

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Here are some pics Diony sent us from Cape Verde.

He sailed impressively to come through the trials and qualify for the main event.

Unfortunately Diony came up against Kauli and Swift in his first heat of the main competition. Despite putting in an excellent performance the judges put Kauli and Swift through.

Well done Diony for an immpressive performance!

Looks like he had a lot of fun. He will be back on Maui the first week of April for the Mistral photo shoot.

Epic Conditions for Sail Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:50:00 +0000

Blog by Tom

The new sample sails came in this week. First to arrive were the new Liquid crossover samples. I had a go at testing them on Tuesday but the wind died out before I got much done. I did manage to rig and sail both the 6.5 and 7.0 sizes. Pictured below is the 7.0:

Wednesday saw the latest wave sail samples show up along with a big swell and some good if a little gusty wind! The crew headed to the beach for an afternoon of testing and we managed to get 3 sizes on the water. Juan took a 4.2, Glenn a 4.7 and I rigged a 5.3 (I weigh about twice what Juan weighs!)

The conditions were epic! It was the perfect size of wave for Kanaha being head to logo high with the occasional bigger set. The wind was somewhat fickle and would come and go as it pleased. I rode the Starboard Kombat 89 for the first time, something I have been waiting to do since they first came in months ago! This proved the perfect choice for me and I had a great time with it. I found I could really drive a bottom turn with it and soon got the confidence to charge at the wave making some nice top to bottom turns. The Fire '09 behaved perfectly with that magic feel for down the line wave riding. All too soon I was worn out and having a hard time hanging on to the boom as my hands were tired. I took a break, but the wind faded and I had to smim out to catch a few last waves and then swim back in. It was totally worth it for the one nice logo high wave I caught and put a nice turn off the breaking lip!

If I can find any photos I will post. In the mean time there are some on GP's blog:

http://mauisurfreport.blogspot.com/

Testing will continue this week with Crossfire, Speed Demon and GPS sails to test.

Ola Helenius sent the below photos of the Sweedes in action. The first pic shows Glenn heading out on a 2009 Fire (all other pics show 2008 sails).

Thanks Ola!

Tom's Fish

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:45:00 +0000

Blog by Tom

OK, I know this is a Hot Sails Blog, but look at this fish!

It is a 28 1/4" long O'io (estimated 8 lbs) I caught at Baldwin Beach Park on Sunday at Anne (my fiance)and William's (her brother) birthday party. I also caught about a 1lb Papio.

March notes

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:23:00 +0000

Posted by Tom

I've been a bit busy recently and have not had any time to post or go windsurfing. So right now I am vicariously living through those who have actually made it to the beach!
First here is a little note from Diony who is down in Cape Verde for the PWA wave contest:

"On the 26th of Feb I jumped on the plane destination to Cabo Verde from Venezuela for the event that marked history of wave sailing last year!! We had two days of sailing already!! one spot called Hookipa, super light winds!! And then the next day at Punta Preta which was about head high in the sets!! Soooooo much fun that wave!! down the line full blast!!! I Hope conditions well get good for the event!! Stay updated with more news from Cabo Verde!! DG_V69"

The Sweedes are in town and seem to be thawing out nicely. Check out their holiday sailing pics:

"Here are some pics from the "swedish Hot gang" sailing Hookipa today
and yesterday. My wife took the pics which is the mot impressive
"action" considering managing two kids at the same time.

Click on the right part of the image for the next one. (Commentary in
swedish)

Tuesday:
http://www.olah.se/Maui/Maui7-hookipa/

Wednesday
http://www.olah.se/Maui/Maui8-Hookipa/

Sailors:
Jesper (white Smack 5.0)
Mats (blue Smack 5.3)
Fredrik (white/red SO 5.3)
Björn (blue SO 5.3)
Magnus (white/red Fire 4.7)
Ola (black/red/white Fire 5.0)"

Temira was over for a couple of weeks for thawing out too. She kept very busy and went home with a nice tan and 2009 Fire prototypes for testing. I look forward to hearing her feedback on the new 3.0 Fire - a Gorge special!

Jeff had a couple of good sessions on the 2009 Smack 5.0 and declared it perfect! You will have to wait for the June 1st release date to find out for yourselves just how perfect it is.

All the 2009 materials are in production right now and we have some exciting new introductions. I don't think I am supposed to let that cat out of the bag yet however so I can't show you the samples.

More 2009 samples will be showing up in about a week and then my job will consist solely of going sailing and testing - I can't wait! Maybe I will even post a few sneak peak photos...maybe.

------------Update--------

Ok, so Andreas sailed the Smack at Ho'okipa and the next day there are photos on the internet. So as the cat is out of the bag, check out this link to find shots of the new 2009 Smack:

http://www.raymangan.com/gallery/4469948_Sw2UC#262906539_Hzz35-A-LB

New Super Freak color system on line.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:37:00 +0000

Got the new color maker on the Freak page now. All the new colors are there too!

Sail Design Process

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:07:00 +0000

By Tom

Let's look at the design process for the Speed Demon as an example.

The first thing to do is to establish the conditions, equipment and level of sailor that the sail is for and what they want from it. In this case we are making an all-round sail for generally flat water with some chop and swells thrown in. It will probably be used on production boards 90-140 litres and 65-80cm wide with a fin 35-45cm in length. The sailor will probably be from intermediate to advanced level but probably not expert. The sailor wants to blast around as fast as the can get a few chop hops in and overtake their friends. They might do the occasional local race but are really just into zooming around for fun.

Now we can identify the qualities the sail needs to have. The end goal is to have a fast sail, but it must be powerful enough to drive a big board and accelerate quickly from those muffed gybes. It needs to be easy to rig and to handle. The owner will probably fall a lot so it needs to be easy to waterstart and be strong enough to handle the crashes. It will need to have smooth rotation and transition nicely and have good manouverability.

So now we can start making choices. Obviously a wide sleeve and cambers are not for this customer. A moderately narrow sleeve that will accomodate both RDM and SDM masts (so the customer does not need to buy a new mast). A narrow sleeve will not fill up with water and makes waterstarting easy.

Seven battens will make the sail nice and stable and resist compression at the loads that we be imposed on it with tubes in four of the upper battens. Eight battens would be overkill and add extra weigh and cost to the sail.

The outline is determined by many factors but simply put it needs to provide the right platform to deliver the power and twist charicteristics required. In this case we want a fairly powerful sail with good acceleration, wide wind range and a high top speed. A relatively low aspect ratio outline with a wide head with lots of roach, moderate boom length and a medium-low foot will deliver. This outline helps to make the leech more reactive for better power and acceleration. I like to use a little trick I call "Reduced Boom Length" to aid the twist and stability of the sail. The idea is that instead of the clew being at the corner of a triangle between the leech and the foot it is moved in effectively shortening the boom but maintaining the chord length (batten length) above the clew. This moves the tension line from the clew to the head forward aiding in stability and and allowing a more responsive twist in the lower leech. This also makes the sail feel smaller than it is when it comes to handling as the foot is the size of a smaller sail. Mini-battens and scaloping help eliminate leech flutter. The head batten is also slightly shortened for better aerodynamics and to prevent backwinding.

The luff curve is chosen as the best compromise between power, handling and ease of rigging. Generally more luff curve provides more power and less gives a softer more forgiving feel.

The shaping must be matched to the luff curve and outline of the sail. The 3 dimensional sail shape when sailing is created by controling the tension in the body of the sail and is a dynamic system. This is the most technical, complex and closely guarded part of sail design. The goal is to create a complete system that works together in unison. The more shape a sail has the deeper the camber and the more lift it produces. The problem is that with more lift comes more drag so again a balance has to be found. Fast sails tend to have a more draught forward foil as they are going faster and have more apparent wind. This makes the apparent wind move forward so the sail is always going up-wind even when sailing off the wind, and a forward draught is more efficient for going upwind. The Speed Demon needs a moderately deep camber which will provide good power but still be very easy to handle.

The materials are selected next according to their properties and asthetic appeal. Stretch, weight and cost are the primary considerations. We want a sail that is light, does not stretch much and is not too expensive. Lightweight monofilm is the material of choice in these curcumstances. X-ply is used in the luff area where the sail is wrinkled during rigging and extra durability is required.

Reinforcement is added as needed for the expected loads and materials used. The batten tapers are specified to match the sail shaping and Voila we have a complete sail design!

The Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:28:00 +0000

Last weekend started at about 4pm Friday. The winds were light and I got a call from Glenn telling me the conditions were perfect to sail my SUP board at Kanaha. Sure enough light winds and pretty little head high waves beckoned. I rigged my 5.8 Fire on the minimums and took my 12’6” out for my first longboard wave riding session. I must admit I am more cautious in my later years. I picked a small first wave and went left. I then picked a bigger wave and went left. Enough of that rubbish! The next wave I went down the line and to my surprise the board was game! I put in a couple of turns and ended the ride with an off the whitewater lip. Not a fat curling lip, more of a dribble, but still a good hit. That was it for me, I just wanted to find out what was possible, and each ride after that got a little more aggressive.

It was a perfect session, there were only four sailors, Glenn, myself, a guy I don’t know and that guy from second Wind who’s name escapes me and I hope he does not read this blog! Ralph Sifford was out on a longboard surfing then two more guys came out one on a Sup and another surfer. I was having a blast as everyone else seemed to be – nothing but smiles!

Saturday and Sunday were Launiupoko days as we had a guest (one of Anne’s best friends) and I was teaching her to surf on the SUP. I am a terrible surfer, but the SUP made me into a hero! I took Deanna out for her first surf ever and I told her to just lie on the board and enjoy the ride. I gave the board a good shove when a macking 1 foot set came in and she was off. She loved it and she must have caught over half a dozen waves before she got tired from paddling back out and we took a rest.

Deanna catches her first wave

Next we gave the SUP a go for real – with hilarious results! Damn it is hard just to stand on the thing! I still got it together enough to catch and ride my first wave as a stand up paddler! We discovered that kneeling paddling is a good way to get to know the environment without falling off every two seconds and a great tool to getting out through the monstrous flat to a foot surf.

Tom's first stand-up session

We went back out “regular” surfing having been humbled somewhat. This time we took it in turns as I did not want to tire Deanna out to quickly and I of course wanted a crack at it. I gave D a 30 second lesson on how to stand up and on her very next wave she did! If that was not impressive enough, I caught every single excuse for a wave I paddled for! Seriously this is ridiculous it totally looked like I knew what I was doing!

Tom surfing?!!

Tom back from SUP session

Heading back out for more surfing

So Sunday found us back at the same south shore surf break as D was absolutely hooked on surfing. Unfortunately the surf had disappeared and the sets were a meager half foot. The tide was also lower, so the reefs were still generating waves, albeit without much water! Much fun was had but the lack of water resulted in several groundings and numerous reef cuts to boot. It’s okay I got more plasters and have a good supply of Betadine and Neosporin at hand. D caught her first wave SUP and was only perforated by an urchin once. Good fun!

Tom Meets Reef

Deanna Gets Up

Tom SUP on a monster!

The girls needed to leave the beach early which gave me two free hours to play in the afternoon. Being short of time I opted for a quick windfishing session at Sprecks. When I got there it was windier and much wavier than I expected. I ditched the windfishing idea and just took the 12’6” to ride some waves. This turned out to be a misyake as it was too big for Sprecks which turned out to be one big lumpy mess with no defined waves to ride - still a blast.

So over the weekend I used my 12’6” (can’t call it a SUP ‘cause it does so much more!) to surf, stand-up-paddle and windsurf, two of which were genuinely new experiences. Actually catching every wave I paddled for was a new experience too! I have no desire to surf anything else now as it is so easy to paddle and catch waves. I could turn the board just fine at least as good as any other longboard I have ridden. It takes some foot work but is not hard to sort out. I guess you could call me old, but I tell you I have never ridden so many waves in such a short period of time, so maybe I am just impatient!

For those of you expecting a blog exclusively on windsurfing I apologize. I am writing this and this is what I did this weekend. So actually I am not sorry at all as I had a ball!

How sails are designed.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:01:00 +0000

Bloged by Tom

I was recently asked about sail design by an Italian magazine. Unfortunately due to the timing I was only able to give the most cursory answers. Having thought about it a bit I decided that the people who buy HSM products deserve to know a bit about what goes into them. I cannot fully explain the designs or how they are created (top secret!), but I can give you an insight.

Take a piece of paper. You can easily curve it in one direction or another. It is a two dimensional object and can be made to conform to any 2D shape. Piece of cake. Now take that paper and twist it. It does not want to do it does it? All you get are giant wrinkles. This is the problem the sail designer faces – making a 3D object from 2D materials. Not only that but we deal with dynamic systems, that is to say they are constantly changing. One last spanner in the works is that what a sail wants to do naturally is the opposite of what you want it to do. A little tricky.

So it seems impossible, yet we have come so far. Modern sails are engineering feats no doubt. The windsurfing environment is so complex with so many variables that it is impossible to model. So how is it done?

I can’t speak for other designers, but here is how I do it. I look at the sail as a complete surface. I look at the whole system rather than individual isolated points. So if I change anything it changes EVERYTHING. Imagine this, big soap bubble. If you touch it, it will adhere to your finger (if it does not pop!) and you can manipulate it. You only move one point on the bubble but the entire bubble changes. I treat it as a 4 dimensional object – 3 spatial dimensions and a tension dimension. They are all related and any change in one causes a change in the others. Understanding tension in a sail is the key to understanding how a sail shapes and how a sail performs.

Understanding the mast is the other side of the equation. The mast is super critical as it dictates how the sail will be tensioned under dynamic conditions. Use a mast the sail was not designed for and who knows what the sail will do. Most people don’t seem to notice but sail designers cringe when another mast is used. Look at it from our perspective – we’ve been tearing our hair out to eek out meager gains in performance this last year, and some kook takes the sail and rigs it on a mast that sets the performance back 5 or more years!

Anyway, that was just shaping, we put the same effort into material selection, durability, pricing, quality and many other factors.

When you buy a sail from Hot Sails Maui, you are buying it from people who have windsurfed for a very long time, and have put everything they know into the sails. You are getting the very best in performance, durability, quality and price. To be honest we do it for ourselves, so we can have better sessions, ‘cause it’s what we do. You just happen to benefit!

You Cannot Be Serious!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 06:47:00 +0000

Do you know the best thing about weddings (not including the wedding night)?
No, it’s not when it’s over, it’s the presents! If Anne reads this please note it is tongue in cheek!

My long time boss and good friend Jeffrey Henderson just gave us a very early wedding present. Anne and I are both agreed it was worth getting married already (even though we actually haven’t).

Tonight I added two 2x2 pieces of lumber to my board rack and secured them with four screws. This is highly significant as you will see in the photo of the rack below:

Notice an odd one out? Yes we got a SUP!!!!!
I have not been this excited since I got my first shortboard! This is an amazing gift and Anne and I are very thankful. It is certainly the best wedding present we will get so I guess it’s all downhill from here.

Why am I so excited? This is the most versatile piece of kit I have ever had. We can:

Surf
Stand-up-paddle
Tandem surf
Learn to Windsurf
Windsurf on light days
Go on long exploratory sails
Windfish (this will happen a lot!)
Whale-watch platform
Generally enjoy life!

What a brilliant gift!

Thanks Jeff.