Hi Wouter

“1- What do windsurfer do when the wind changes in strength?”

They use to have to change sails every 6 mph or so…now you can go out with a top quality sail and hold it down in wind that would have required 3 or 4 sail changes 15 years ago.

“-2- How many suit of sails do windsurfers have to be able to sail whenever they want ?”
I use to have an 8.0/7.0/5.7/5.0/4.5/4.0/3.5/3.0 in the late 80’s that would let me sail from 5mph to 40 mph winds. But the 5.7-3.0 were for surf sailing…where it is much more important to be dialed in with the perfect size. Back then just for recreational flat water it would be more like 8.0 6.0 4.5 Today you could easily hold down a good race 8.0 from drifting conditions to well over 25 MPH wind on flat water and the proper board. Basically all the conditions that catamarans are regularly sailed in.

The cut of the sails and the way they have tweaked and tweaked the sails and sail mast interaction is just amazing.

3- How well does a windsurfer transition from pure upwind work to downwind with high vmg ?

That’s a function of the board shape (rocker/bottom shape/rails) and fin being used as well as the sail itself. Dead down wind is not its fastest point of sail but sailing powered up on a deep broad reach will get you downwind at break neck speeds for sure.

“Sailboat rigs can sometimes have amazing flexibility in flying shapes produced by adjusting a few control lines while racing on the water. I haven't seen surf board rigs do anything like that.”

My Friend Mike Gephardt three…(or was it four?) time Olympic sailboard campaigner (one silver, one bronze) has had adjustable outhaul and downhaul on some of his race boards that I have seen to address just the things you are proposing…

Please don’t take my enthusiasm for windsurfing as a knock on catamaran sailing…I love them both…it just that windsurfers has been so much more open to new development than boat sailors. So to have a chance to take what I feel is a vastly more developed rig and apply it to a catamaran gets me all excited.

One lesson that windsurfing surfing seemed to grasp right away it that everything is interdependent…and although that sail design might not have worked last year, it works great this year because the board is been refined to capitalize on the sails strength or the fins improved which allowed the sails to be cut flatter and still have the power to plan out quick…or that setting on a softer constant curve carbon mast allow the sail to breath with every puff but reset to its static shape much more quickly. Large square head sails with tons of downhaul that allowed sails to triple there designed wind range. Its not that Cat sailors are unaware of this, it just that the windsurfing community has put more a lot more energy into R&D . Every variable affecting every piece of gear was/is on the fast track so that it just keeps getting better and better at an accelerated pace.

On the other hand most Cat sailors seem to put “protecting their investment” over any desire to propel the sport to the next performance level. Every possible improvement is seen as a threat of making their cat obsolete.

Shake loose some of the cobwebs and fire up some cat sailors to consider something beyond the status quo…LOL..push the limits till they squeal like little girls. I can’t wait to see were we end up.

Best Regards,
Bob