The Charge Of The Lightweights

As much as our test team have a real love and passion for wave sailing, it is eminently apparent that the devotion is identical amongst the brands on review here.

- Tris Best, Maurin Rottenwalter, Joe North, Dan Hallam, Dan Linton And Tom Squires

The reason is that there are a lot of exceptional sails in this group. Progression has been iterative and design concepts come and go, yet there is undoubtedly some correlation in the intended focus for development amongst the various sail lofts. To this end, there is not one sail here that we wouldn’t happily have in our quiver if we were to go on a tour of the various wave spots around the world. Sure, we have our own individual favourites, but such is the quality of the performances here that we wouldn’t be upset if forced to use any sail.

FINDINGS

So before we start spouting a torrent of superlatives, let’s think about what actually makes a good wave sail. The qualities are all interlinked, but what we’re all searching for is: the power when we need it, the handling to be able to use the power and the control to be able to do it over a wide wind range. And it seems the key to it all is to reduce the physical weight of the sail, without compromising structural integrity or durability. There is an extra subliminal contest between the lofts to find the best solution, be it through developing new laminates, refining panel layouts or reducing batten numbers. There are then additional techniques instilled to try and mask over the sail’s physical weight changing batten positions, reducing the sail’s head area, or altering its geometry such as moving the centre of effort back in the draft and around the rider.