There is a lot going on out there about aspect ratios. Some of the guys tell the high-aspect ones are better for foiling, some others are voting to keep the CE low with a shorter mast and a longer boom. I belong to the second group, so this sail is in that category as well.
As the first sail was made in a rush without cams and details, this one is a 6 battens, 3 cams one, using different materials from the usual.
Materials
The panels are from monofilm, and the head and the foot ones are made of technora laminate with 1.5mil film. The two big load patches on the clew connecting the 3rd and 6th battens, the luff panel, and the mast sleeve fairing are from the same material.
Design
The flying shape basically is the same as on our previous design, with some small adjustments on the exit angles and we’ve added more twist to it. We’ve made some further changes on the luff curve, which is moderatly different from the previous, changed the shape of the top, the sail has a different head angle and batten placing. In the design I’ve also added a much bigger foot roach, in order to close the gap between the sail and the board to create an endplate effect, which basically made a sail what is called decksweeper in sailing.
First rigging in the loft
Just like with the first sail, we had some luff curve issues. After some modifications and adjustments we’ve resolved these and the sail became much better. We tookout some luff-curve from the top part and removed some excess material and some wrinkles and voilá!
First test
It was a pretty short tes in a dying wind, starting from about 12kts and dying continuously.
The sail however delivers the power very well, after a gybe, even if the dry-gybe was missed the sail accelerates quite quickly. I used full outhaul upwind which probably was a little bit too much, but I just wanted to flatten out the sail. Downwind realesed fully and I played quite a lot with the downhaul as well.
The sail needs some work, some small things need to be adjusted to be able to increase the space for the cams, and take out some of the luff-curve from the top part.
Finally I ended up to redesigning the luff-curve and cutting out a new mast sleeve and fairing. It was easier than modifying the existing one. Check out a small video here on the plotter working on the sleeve.
Plan is to go testing within the next couple of days if the weather allows. Also the Ten-o is on the way, so stay tuned as there will be a post about that as well.
Until then, have nice winds and stayed tuned!