Sean O’Brien reports from the Downunder Pro – FW Championships in Australia where he took out his 6th Australian FW Title on his new AC-1 Handcrafted sails:

The 2012 Downunder Pro – Oceanic and Australian FW Championships concluded on Saturday with an action packed 7 races taking place over the four-day regatta at picturesque Jimmy’s Beach, Hawks Nest, just a few hours drive north of Sydney, on the east coast of Australia. This event hosted a variety of titles including the Australian & Oceanic FW Championships, RS:X Australian Championships, Raceboard Oceanic Championships as well as a BIC Techno Regatta and was something I am heavily involved with organising over the past few years. Over the week long event we had 102 competitors across all the classes with 58 in the FW division, including the current World #1, and eventual winner of the event, Paulo Dos Reis (BRA-3333), Jesper Vesterstrøm (DEN-111) and Wilhelm Schurmann (BRA-999) who took out the remaining podium spots.

The FW event started on the 28th February with a Warmup Event producing 8 races over two days with winds on the Sunday over 25 knots on the course. I managed to take 3rd place in this event behind Vesterstrøm and Schurmann and this was the first major hit-out on my new equipment for the 2012 season; AC-1 Handcrafted sails and Starboard F167wide board…

The gear was a major talking point during this event, as this is the first international event for the new year and I had been involved with trying to push the FW class towards only using 2 sails (instead of 3) at international regattas this year, to make the travel easier. Despite this new rule never getting to fruition, 4 out of the Top 5 sailors at this event only registered 2 sails and showed the versatility of the new equipment on the market. To make the 2-sail quiver possible, we’ve made 2 key new sizes available in the AC-1 Handcrafted series; 11.5m and 10.5m. I will use just these 2 sizes this season on the Pro FW Tour and I got a great chance to make use of the advantages of having this 2-sail quiver during the Downunder Pro:

1) I’m not the heaviest sailor out there (81kg at the moment), so a 12m is just a big heavy sail to me, especially when used on a 580cm mast. The new 11.5m rigs on the 550cm mast, and fits the ‘medium’ sized booms, so by dropping down a mast/boom size, you reduce your rig weight dramatically (as well as reducing the weight of the sail) at a very minimal drop in sail size (only 0.5m). This lighter rig makes pumping so much easier and reduces your fatigue around the course. In testing against the other guys on 12m sails, I can get planing sometimes earlier (as the smaller sail is easier to pump) and have comparable angle downwind, with the improvements in our 2K12 range of AC-1′s.

2) With an 11.5m and 10.5m quiver, I can run the 10.5m on either a 550 or 520 mast. I prefer the 520cm, especially for highwind, but now I know when I go to regattas I can bring less masts (reducing my excess baggage charges), and know if I have a breakage, I can just throw my 550 in to the smaller sail and away I go. Not that I’m worried about mast breakages, as I’m still yet to break a P7 mast in normal sailing conditions. However, out on the racecourse anything can happen; last year at the FW World Championships in Puerto Rico, I had a sailor crash in to me on port so hard that his boom split my mast on impact!

3) When the wind sits between 12-20 knots, which is very common where I normally race, it’s difficult to choose between the 12m and 11m sails. The bigger sailors on the tour can manage the 12m in up to 25 knots, but it’s very hard to be competitive at the top level if you change down to 11m and the wind drops to 12 knots. With the 11.5m, I’m covered in all scenarios, and I can comfortably hold this sail down up to 25 knots if the water is flat, keeping the stress levels down on what sail to choose if the wind is gusty.

Back to the event….

Over the Downunder Pro main event, 4 days of FW racing with 58 competitors, we had two days of torrential rain and 30 knots on the course – with very low visibility, making it difficult to see the marks. I used the 10.5m with VMG 70cm fin during the 7 races in ballistic conditions and was sitting in 5th overall behind Dos Reis, Vesterstrøm, Schurmann and Mathias Pinheiro (BRA-5); just 2 points behind Mathias with 2 days left in the regatta.

Unfortunately for me, the low pressure troughs that brought the rain on the first 2 days became a ‘super-sucker’ and took the wind from us on the final 2 days of the event. On the final Saturday of racing, we attempted an ultra lightwind race in 6-7 knots in which 80% of the fleet could barely keep planing up the first upwind. This was a great test for my 11.5m versus the other sailors on 12m and as I thought, I was very competitive, rounding the first lap in 3rd behind Schurmann and Vesterstrøm, and well clear of the event leader Dos Reis before the race was eventually abandoned due to lack of wind.

My 5th place overall meant I was the 1st placed Australian, which gives me the Australian FW Title for the 6th time (4th time in a row!) and I am very excited to have my name on our FW trophy once more, which includes World Champions like Steve Allen and Phil McGain in Formula’s 10 year history in Australia. During the event, I was running the media shooting the photos at the beach, writing the press reports and liasing with the media as well as keeping everything up to date on website and even compiling the results in the evenings! A pretty busy workload on top of the racing and I think the earliest I got to bed any night was about 3am! Not the best preparation for racing!!

For me, the event was a real success and also a great opportunity to showcase our new AC-1 sails. Now having dialed in my Handcrafted Series formula sails, I’m happy to answer any questions anyone has on these particular models as the summer is cranking in Australia and I am out everyday on the water at the amazing beaches surrounding Sydney and my hometown of Brisbane.

The dream has come true. Thanks to Point-7, Windsurf Club 77 Tenerife, and the constant trade winds in the Canary Islands, a real 4-gybe downwind course will be set permanently in the bay of El Medano, Tenerife. Tested and approved by Pascal Toselli and Andrea Cucchi, it is now available for anyone who would like to come and battle on it at any time. The marks are set on the water everyday from 1-5pm and removed each night.

Pascal said about the new training setup: “Training in Tenerife is already a paradise; you can sail with all different sail sizes as it’s windy every day. With the marks it’s super motivating to go on the water now! We have had them setup for 3 days now and I think I already did 50 heats.”

Andrea: It took a few days of work to get it all set, but now it’s been 3 days already that we are killing each other around the course. It’s a true luxury to have this available each day. In 2 months of sailing and I’m feeling very fit. After the first 4 heats we did, I realised that racing is much more hard work then just sailing around and free gybing. I think we all need to say a big thank you to Luca Orsi of Windsurf Club 77 Tenerife, who made this possible.”

By February in El Medano there will be Andrea Cucchi, Pascal Toselli, Luca Orsi, Adam Lewis (if not on double looping between the waves), Martin Toth, Jimmy Diaz, Markus Poltenstein, Nikolaj Kruppa, Sergey Makarenko, Greta Benvenuti, Çağla Kubat, Gunnar Asmussen and many locals. So if you want to plan some hardcore slalom, come and join the group!

The Black Sheep Team! This is why windsurfing is a great lifestyle sport. Have you ever heard of them before? Friends sharing challenging times on the water and the great beach lifestyle. A group of friends have made this team and enjoy blasting in the water with their black sails altogether. Today, the team boasts a lot of Sheep from all around the world. If you think you have enough black sail passion to join this windsurfing group, ask permission:

Black Sheep Team on Facebook

Slalom-Strap Setup

Wave-Strap Setup

As you can see by the images, for wave sailing you should be able to get most of your foot into the strap. By having bigger straps it allows you to get over the centre-line of the board, which in turn allows you to engage the rail and rocker of the board fully. If you think about surfing or even skateboarding, you wouldn’t stand with your foot away from the centre-line of the board if you were trying to turn it, would you?

I have a few tips when changing your strap size. Firstly, don’t make them huge straight away. Like anything, it’s best to make the changes little by little, so each time you go sailing make the straps slightly bigger. This way it is easier to get used to, rather than struggling with a big change. In response to recommending bigger straps, I often get asked, “But how can I keep my feet in the straps whilst jumping?” Well, it’s actually quite easy – all you have to do it scrunch your toes up. This pushes the arch of your foot up into the strap, locking your foot in place.

Scrunched-up Toes

Give it a try; I’m sure you’ll be surprised at the difference it makes!

Sean O’Brien has just returned from Singapore where he won the Asian FW Championships, racing on his new AC-1 Handcrafted formula sails. Read a report from Sean on the event and his take on the new sails:

Come January there is usually not too much going on in the windsurfing world; that is, unless you live in the southern-hemisphere where it’s “on-season” time right now! Arriving home to Australia just 2 weeks before Christmas I got the invite from some friends in Asia to travel to Singapore to compete at the Asian Windsurfing Championships in the second week of January. Having been to ‘Singas’ before, I know just how beautiful this city is, so naturally jumped at the chance and 8 hours plane-ride later, I was touching down at Changi International, one of the best airports in the world.

The event was scheduled for 11-15th January at the NSRCC club along the Changi Coast Walk (quite close by to the airport). The NSRCC windsurfing club is such an amazing piece of infrastructure, purpose built for windsurfing with multiple access ramps, big, shady grass areas for rigging, a number of restaurants and a bar, and a huge amount of storage for windsurfing kit for all the members. I arrived the week before to get some tuning in on my new equipment and also to run some coaching sessions and clinics for the BIC Techno Youth Team and Olympic RS:X team – as well as a big clinic for the Formula guys. Singapore is not ultra famous for wind, however over the weekend of the planned clinics we had beautiful 15-20 knot NE’ers , which is slightly offshore at this location so kept the conditions on the water a little shifty and challenging. A bunch of keen BIC & RS:X sailors were out in force on the Saturday and we ran a full day’s training both on the water and land. On the Sunday I attempted the same thing with the Formula guys which kicked off with a big clinic on gear rigging, setup and tuning before a large rainstorm arrived and killed the wind for the day and kept us at the restaurant rather than the water…

Racing started on the Thursday with a large turnout across all classes for the event but only 14 sailors in the Formula class. We managed to knock away 2 races on the first day including sitting through a big rain squall with winds over 25 knots. That would have been fine normally, but these days it’s near impossible to take gear on planes out of the east coast of Australia so I had only brought one sail with me and one fin; a new P7 Handcrafted 11.5m and a 73cm cutdown to go with my new Starboard F167wide – probably not exactly the setup for 25 knots!!

I took two bullets in the first day’s racing ahead of Meng (SIN-0) and Harold Ma (SIN-36) with the courses featuring a long slalom downwind course to the finish line, which was pretty interesting and brutal on the big fins when the wind was strong!

For the opening ceremony we had a BBQ at the nearby National Service Resort bungalows for all the sailors and I did a presentation about my life as a windsurfer and showed some of the videos I have made over the past few seasons, before we sat down for some beers and watched an old school PWA World Tour 1997 Highlights DVD (arguable one of the coolest highlight movies of the tour, ever).

On day 2 we were blessed with similar winds and again I took 2 bullets but with the inclusion of Englishmen Chris Newman (GBR-88) who’d managed to get a day off work finally and took two 2nd’s ahead of Meng (SIN-0) and Harold (SIN-36). I was really happy with the performance of my new Handcrafted 11.5m. This particular sizing had been an idea of mine for a few seasons and finally it’s become a reality. To me, travelling with 3 sails around the globe is almost too difficult (especially considering airlines coming out of the east coast of Australia will not take windsurfing gear). I pushed the idea of formula being a 2-sail class however this rule got vetoed recently, but despite that I will be racing on 11.5 / 10.5 combo this season. We spent a LOT of time working on the development of the new AC-1 formula sizes, starting with Andrea’s first prototypes that he won the World Masters Championships on. With the new Handcrafted program, we are allowing everyone to get access to what is basically the construction of our prototype sails (with a few nice extras) in the sense that the sails are stripped down to their lightest possible weight, and are given greater attention to detail and fixtures than production sails are able to be created with. In the end, I’ve ended up with an 11.5 that has great low-end grunt and angle against many sailors on the 12m, however I can hold it to over 20 knots (unlike a 12m) which will reduce the ‘changes’ I need to make to sail sizes during an event… ie, I will probably just use the 11.5 in every windstrength and never change sails – so easy!

The following two days we got skunked for wind and spent most of the day on the beach rigging sails and chatting about windsurfing in Asia. The event was sponsored by a massive club in Singapore called The Butter Factory, which was always going to be dangerous so with a forecast of almost ZERO chance of wind on the final day we all decided to hang out late at Butter…

The event concluded with a big closing ceremony inviting some ministers down as well as the sponsors (they do love their fanfares in Asia, which is really cool!) and a HUGE dinner buffet of fresh fish and chinese style cooking.

On the flip side of the windsurfing, one of my best buddies lives in Singapore these days and in the evenings I’d spent the time with him visiting many of the amazing places Singas has to offer including the $8 billion casino/hotel complex Marina Bay Sands, Sentosa Beach, the Lantern rooftop pool bar at the Fullerton Bay Hotel, the ‘crystal-inspired’ transparent glass nightclub called Avalon which is floating on the water in Marina Bay as well as checking out the preparations for Chinese New Year next week in Chinatown and the surrounds. So much culture within an amazingly futuristic and modern city that is super clean and has almost ZERO crime – too good to be true, right?

Singapore is one of those ‘must do’ places on the travel calendar and luckily for me I have to fly through it to actually go anywhere outside of Australia. There is a great infrastructure and support for windsurfing events in Asia and Singapore was no exception. I’m definitely hoping to get over there to race again where I can and also it was a good chance to catch up with some of the locals there who are coming to Australia to race at our Oceanic/Australian Formula Windsurfing Championships at Hawks Nest, NSW in 2 weeks.

Final Results:

1. Sean O’Brien (AUS-120)
2. Wang Yew Pang (SIN-0) – 1st Asian
3. Matthieu Laura (FRA-11)
4. Harold Ma (SIN-36)
5. Yeap Leong Soo (MAS-7)

Pascal Toselli is what Point-7 considers the perfect team rider; now with Point-7 for three years and motivated to improve his results once more, in his eyes it’s time to take the Black Sails higher in the world rankings again. Pascal’s great involvement in the development of our sails has helped the rest of the team in building the latest AC-1 incarnation. From his 25th position in the PWA in 2010, to a 17th place in the final PWA rankings of 2011, let’s find out the plans for his 2012 season.

Welcome to Tenerife, how has it been the first 4 days you have been here?

It’s great to be out of the cold French winter and enjoying summer weather here in the Canaries! Till now, I was every day on the water and the forecast for the coming week is perfect to test all the new equipment! Strong, medium and light winds! We will be on the water each day with a lot of people in water for training; perfect!

2011 has been a good year for you. You have improved a lot your ranking. What was the main difference?

Yes 2011 was better, but it could have been even better again. I finished 17th in the ranking, one place from having free accomodation on the tour! I had some bad races which penalised the overall result, but still a good improvement. The main difference was the experience in racing. After having finished my university studies in 2010 I could spend more time windsurfing and could do more racing .. This allowed me more concentration on my racing. When you get some good results you believe more in yourself and you gain more confidence. I’m now more motivated, I’m training more and the new gear has nothing to stop me from reaching my targets.

Did you manage to try the AC-1 2K12?

YES!! I have received the sails and till now I was on the production 7.2m and the 6.3m. First feeling is very good!

How are the new 6.3 and 7.2 you have tried till now?

I think the first thing you realise when you take the new AC-1 2K12, even before starting to plane, is the weight. It’s a big difference to 2011. This is the only thing I would have changed from last year, as the sails were way fast already. As you get in the wind you realise the stability has improved which is a surprise as the old ones felt great before. At first test it seams that what has been changed has brought more efficiency to the design. I’m sure no one can complain about the cam rotation this year. The new cams give a smooth rotation to the new tack. These are the first impressions; I’m impatient to test more.

Will you do the whole PWA tour this year? Any other events?

Yes this year I’ll do all the PWA and french Championship tour AFF. Plus any long distances as the Défi Wind!!

Which place are you aming for 2012 PWA ranking?

My goal for 2012 is to step in the top 10. A difficult goal as I’m not the only one of want to be in the top 10 for 2012. The motivation is here!!

Who is the guy you want to beat next season?

Nobody in particular.. well yes, there is one… I want to beat the Toselli of last year!! I just want to do my races at my best performance possible. I will not even look into who is in my heat or the ranking until the last day of the event! The most difficult thing is to keep the focus for so many days of racing and the whole day round, with so many breaks in between. So if I start even thinking of the others I can forget to do what I need to do!

How long will you stay in Tenerife?

I wanted to stay a month. Now the PWA in Vietnam is postponed I will stay longer. El Medano is perfect for training. My first event in 2012 will be the AFF in April, so there is still quite sometime.

A Settembre 2012 proverai un’esperienza unica … che solo la magnifica Costiera Amalfitana può dare!

Tra piacere, passione e lusso …mare, sole e vento, sarai coccolato da uno splendido Caicco Turco che toccherà i posti più belli e ventosi della costa!

Oltre al piacere ci saranno tavola e vela a farti compagnia con la guida di Andrea Cucchi- Scoprirai un nuovo surfspot. Imparerai o migliorerai la tua tecnica e tutti I segreti che vorrai sapere. Saranno 7 giorni di puro relax e divertimento!

Con la tua unica passione… il Windsurf!!!

Dennis Boisen describes his experience as caddy at one of the PWA events which took part last year. Soon the season will start again and as fresh news, the first event could be in Italy at Reggio Calabria from the 19-24th of April, otherwise it will be in Korea.

I had offered myself as caddy for my old friend and colleague Andrea Cucchi, with a strong wish to see him back in his old form and to drive him closer to a top 10 position. I wanted to do what I could to assist him best in the best possible way from the beach…

I’m not personally a good competitor, as I simply can’t stand losing, but I do love the game of racing like nothing else! My own short list where I have been partaking in competitions amount to just 2 minor events; A downwind slalom event on Garda a few years back, where I miraculously overtook a ‘former world fastest man on the water’ with ease.. But then there was not really any wind to support his +110kg ;) Second event was last year in Russia when Andrea and I went to the Sea of Azov to join our Russian distributor at a promotional event. However everything was fairly relaxed and was about having a good time on the water, and spending the evenings with new found friends, whilst testing how much vodka my poor Danish body could distil over the 10 days we were there.. Oh the wonders of Russia!

Anyhow back to story! We left from Milan Bergamo, flying Ryanair; a bunch of the Italian riders, one Australian, one Dane and 20 gear bags. Check-in was surprisingly easy for this no service, no thrills airline. Up to the lady we went, the one with the long dark hair and friendly smile. flashing our pearly blues and of to the security check. Couldn’t have been easier!, even if the guys were under big stress to get killed for the excess luggage they had with them! 1 nagging and one good thing about Ryanair is that the seats don’t tilt backwards. Great that the people in front of you can’t lean back, really annoying your own seat doesn’t lean back.. My best guess is that in a year or 2 the ‘tilting seat’ will be added to the booking options for a 5 euro extra fee ;)

Once in Fuerteventura after a small wait a truck came to pick up our gear and of we went to Sotavento. Even this sounds like a holiday, but luckly one of the riders I was travelling with had the number of someone who could provide this service, as the organizers had nothing organized to help out! The countryside in Fuerteventura is very rugged and spectacular with rock formations in all shades from bright sandy to dark brown. A sheer contrast to the pearly blue Atlantic colours of the sea that welcomed us as we arrived at the venue.

At the event site a massive event tent had been raised as well as a gear tent where we could leave our gear. As we had arrived early, we got right on with rigging the 4 sail sizes Andrea had brought with him. AC-1 2k11 5.6, 6.3, 7.2 and 7.8. First on the agenda was to ensure that the rotation of the sail body was smooth and effortless. The sail body must rotate absolutely perfect as you cant spend time on the water batteling with gear that isn’t finely tuned. Second battens were tuned to ensure the exact fall grade in the sail leech which in turn sets the sail to work perfectly. Holding the right amount of power and release of the wind.

In a discipline where any mistake will be punished by the competitors you want to be 100% sure that your gear is working as it is intended to do. Being in new waters it is paramount to get out on the water and test every piece of gear you have at your disposal . Which fin works best in the given conditions with a given board sail combo and so on…. As most riders were also on the water doing the same tests, it was fairly easy to get an understanding for which gear worked best together and how we needed to tune the sails.

When you work in a team on the beach, its easy for the rider to jump right back out in the water to do head to head tests, This allows for an extremely tight feeling of how the gear needs to get trimmed and combined. Mast foot position with X fin with X sail. All was noted and tested so that come D-day I would be able to set everything from the beach and for the big man focus on the racing in progress without having to worry about having his gear at the go.

Focus on the trim of the sails was to tune for acceleration and top speed. On each downhaul I set marks with a marker pen, directly on the downhaul rope, so that I could easily and fast find the exact amount of downhaul needed to have the optimal tuning.

The boards were tuned with their fin for control and speed. Without control you get nowhere when it’s blowing +40knots! To get all the sizes and combinations fully dialled in, we used the better part of 2 days after which we could leave the beach with a feeling of confidence all preparations had been done and we were ready. This free time was enjoyed best in the hotel swimming pool, taking a few rounds around the edge looking at potential pray for later in the party tent ;)

To get yourself into game mode; this being for slalom racing, a school exam, job interview or Wednesday night football match. It’s a massive advantage to know that you are fully prepared for anything that might be put in front of you. To know that your tools and skills set are all finely tuned for the job at hand. This confidence allows for you to relax and focus on what is crucial, in this case racing. Nailing the start, slamming your gear around the first mark and knowing that when you put the hammer down towards the next mark that your gear has the drive and power to accelerate the sh** out of the others.
Race day! After a few days of taking it easy with some final training sessions, it was finally so far that it was time for the P7 team and all other riders to get wet for real. However the day started out like nothing we had seen the previous days. Meaning NOTHING! No wind, not even a breeze, only clouds laying as a thick blanket over the sky letting no sun shine through nor any wind build. However I had a job to do no matter, so as one of the first in the equipment tent I rigged the 7.8, 7.2 and the 6.3, doubting that the 5.6 would be used on that particular day.

I carried the sails out to where I had planned to stay with gear and later the 2 boards. Stole a chair from the spectator stands for comfort ;) However the early attendance wasn’t in vain, as soon after the beach filled up with everyone else who carrying their gear down on the beach so not much space was free. By that I mean, space which I hadn’t seen getting flooded on the earlier days, by the high-tide that would flow in around midday and onwards. Anyways that wasn’t a worry for us.. being prepared and all haha. Around early afternoon the cloud cover was diminishing and the wind was starting to build so that around 2pm the first start was called. The 7.8 and 110L Patrik board was made ready so Cucchi could get himself into the right state of mind. Making the first round, to got knocked out in the second due a collision with one of the french riders. Toselli who is also on our team did better and finished in 12th.

Second elimination, wind was getting stronger and Cucchi could take full advantage of sailing in conditions in which he excels and finished with a great 5th position in the winners final.

As the days progressed we stopped fully to rig the 7.8 and 7.2 as the wind was pounding from 25-38 knots, each day from early morning making it a real elimination between the riders who have been slalom training in strong conditions as to those who spend their winter wave sailing.

Sotavento is a great venue for slalom competetions. The first mark is just 20m of the beach so when all 8 riders in a heat come hammering down from the start line, it’s a great spectacle to watch the carnage at the first buoy. A mark that got more and more crowded with swimming sailors as the wind strength increased up to over 40 knots!

A lot can be said about the performance that the guys showed, but at the end of the day it’s the best guy who wins. Nothing gets left to chance, he who snoozes, loses…

There are 7 events on the PWA slalom calendar this season, 7 different venues and 7 chances to climb the overall ranking ladder. Some guys will do only a few events whilst others will do the full tour. It’s a hard sport to do well in, as a lot of training is needed and no real training programs exist. The start in a slalom heat is so crucial to get just right. Come a second late over the starting line and you are already 10m behind the guy in front of you. Only very few have the speed to catch up to a guy who is flying down the course, so what to do. Where to get this training? Learning by doing, for sure.. But there is a genuine need to set up training courses for the new young breed of riders entering the tour. Gaining experience in starts, having the guts and confidence to get into a full on rumble at the first mark where no rules apply is a big task for a young guy only just starting out on his international career as a professional windsurfer on the world tour. Nowhere else is the game played out as it is in the PWA and therefore I think that a schooling program that can prepare the youngsters for the battle is needed.

This is something I discussed with Andrea and together, using the P7 network we will try to organize some training programs for riders of all ages and ranking to get involved. Focus during these seminars if you want to call them this, would be starts, jibing, and racing technique in general, as well as letting riders getting a better and stronger understanding for how to trim their gear. Secondly we are discussing maybe also getting a sports psychologist to attend the program, so that also the mental side of competition can be covered and trained. How do you prepare mentally for an event, how to deal with defeat as well as how to deal with success whilst keeping up spirits during hard events? This is something we will try to get organised.

Dennis / P7

Should we start by saying faster, more acceleration, earlier planing… simply better?

Our team riders had already been satisfied in 2011, as we had delivered them a big step up in performance. No one could complain that they had not improved their results, whether by personal GPS records, or National racing and PWA. So our first priority was different for the 2012 development.

We started from your comments and feedback. The sail had to be as ‘plug and play’ as possible. As we mainly sell online, we speak directly with you and we get very direct feedback on what is appreciated and what is not. The more we make you happy, the more we have time to work to make you even happier! So that was the starting point: weight, cam rotation, battens.

Reducing weight was the first step. We have posted the weights on the site to prove this. On the water, the sail’s weight is taken by the board, no by the sailor, so if the sail is a designed well, it becomes light in the hands. If a sail is not working right, it becomes heavy out on the water, even if it had felt light on land. Lately it has been a race between brands to have the lightest sail on the market… on land. Easy marketing? Partly yes, but there is a limit which you don’t want to go over. Durability is an important factor. If everyone would have green grass to rig the sail, fresh water to sail on and low UV rays, strong construction would be less important.

We spend half a year in the canaries, rigging on bad surfaces, never rinsing the gear, leaving the gear on the beach with sand blasting on it, salt water, reefs. The other half of the year, rigging on grass sailing fresh water on Lake Garda. You could build an A-Quality for resisting the Canarian rough condition, and a B-Quality would be enough for the relaxing Garda conditions.

When we first started we gave a very solid construction to our products to give the advantages of durability. In the mean time we had also started testing new, lighter constructions which needed to be tested over a long period of time before we would put it on the market. So these last years we have worked on this aspect. We reduced the sail weight to the max that would make sense, using different materials to build internal reinforcement; stronger materials which would need less layers (making less weight). Our black and yellow monofilm is a laminate of 3 layers. So when we say it’s 5mil, it’s actually a 6.5mil. It’s super resistant but we brought this down to be thinner. Thinner means we now have a real 4.8mil, reducing the overall sail weight quite a lot. The result overall was pretty big as we dropped over a kilogram in some sizes, but looking at the 2 sails next to each other, by the look and by touching the materials, you could not tell that the difference. On the water, sailing straight lines, the sails have always been light due to good performance, but now also when pumping off the start, in the gybe, the lighter construction makes the sail more fun and easier.

Rotation was for some an issue, for some not. The sails were given with a full racing cam tuning, which mean quite stiff pressure in the cams. So if the sails were to be used by a well trained, heavy PWA riders in overpowered conditions, the sail would rotate if combined to a good technique in gybing. Before this would also happen, you would also have to leave the sail to stretch (3-4 hours rigged). The batten tuning for the rotation had also to be placed perfectly. This was all too technical to expect non pro’s to adjust the pressure of the cams to the mm, so to make it easier, we will supply the sail this year with the minimum needed cam pressure to enjoy the rotation of the racing black beauty.

In case someone feels they might want harder pressure to sail it as the non-humans do on PWA Tour, then you can add a 2mm spacer behind the lower 2 cams. If you like a super smooth feeling, or you’d like to use the sail in lighter winds, you can take out the 4mm spacer from behind the top 2 cams. We have also changed the cams. We now have bigger cams on the top 2 battens and outside roller cams for the 2 bottom cams which increases the velocity in the switching the sail to the new tack. (for rigging, counting the cams from the top. Insert in sequence cam 2, cam 1, cam 4, cam 3.

The AC-1 has moved from having a mid-profile in 2010, to a very deep profile in 2011. This gave big advantages in performance however also put a lot of load on the battens. When de-rigging the sail, the cams had to be taken off before completely releasing the downhaul. Surely, sometimes the downhaul can escape from the cleat or hands while realeasing the minimum off to pop off the cams. This gave torsion from the cam to the batten which could easily, with time, break the bottom batten. So to make it stronger from any external risk of breakage, we changed the mix in the batten material. It was a lot of work as we still wanted to keep exactly the flexibility to keep that profile shaping.

These were the main things changed in the structure. 3 important facts to make the sail more friendly to use, but at the same time faster to rig, faster in rotation and easier handling. All these factors plus the soft and easy downhaul tension, will make this sail very enjoyable to sail with.

Regarding the real performance of the sail, we knew that we had to be very careful in making changes. We knew this from the very first event we took part in 2011. The sails are fast and had all components needed to win anything. We have had a lot of request to join our team from many top international sailors after they have tried our sails during the PWA summer events. After trying them, they came out to shore and said, “don’t change anything from the sail, just reduce the weight. They feel great.”

After using the sails ourselves day and night, we knew where each size could be further improved.

The 7.9m and 8.6m had to reduced in weight to be more competitive in light wind. Nothing more than that. The sails were amazing fast in all directions. We just cleaned the leach to the mm to have it perfect. Pascal Toselli was super nervous that we might change anything from these 2 sizes. Pascal has always been a fast sailor in strong wind, and this year he was able to be competitive at the highest level also in lighter winds thanks to these 2 sizes.

The 9.3m was really good in medium powered conditions, but was slightly missing some power in lighter conditions. So we reduced the luff curve and opened a bit more the upper leach to have it breathing more, and being softer for lighter wind. Adding this change to the light structure, it made all a big difference in planing out of the gybe when pumping and keeping a good average speed in the lulls.

From 5.6m to 7.2m the sails were terribly fast downwind, but crosswind we wanted to have a bit of extra lift and more reactive acceleration. We did one radical change to the mid leach and this brought the missing parts to the sail. We were worried that the change would sacrifice the downwind. To do this we also changed the curves on the 430 mast. When the proto was finished Andrea had receive the sail to test, and was alone that morning. He came out of the water, and said, the sail feels very easy and stable compared to anything tried before. Let’s hope that is also fast. So organizing the next session with the rest of the team on the water, the new 2 sail sizes were murdering the old ones in all directions. The 7.2m works fantastic also on the new 430. We have also introduced a 445 mast specially for the 7.2. The 430 is 21 imcs, while for the 7.2 for those who really want something dedicated, they can go for the imcs 22.5 of the 445. It’s a little stiffer and this gives more power for heavier sailors. This year on the PWA a lot of rider where using their 7.2′s on a 460 bottom with 430 top to obtain the perfect mix. Why keep this only for the pros, and not for our clients who would want to test this out? It all makes sense as each size has a different sail area, used in different wind conditions. Why not have each size have it’s mast to make the perfect combination?

So now we can present to you the AC-1 2K12. It is history in the making and ready to take an already great heritage to unknown levels with its promise of precision and drive to succeed. The AC-1 2K12 is designed and developed for the rider who will not compromise on anything, or with anyone!