When it comes innovation in windsurfing equipment who do you rate , ie. in design, materials, new concepts.

Unsprisingly the guys with the biggest R&D budget are in a position to dominate here and names like Neil Pryde and Starboard standout.

As an example with Pryde - the big luff sleeve and boom cutout were concepts that some other companies shunned but then later jumped on the bandwagon.

Of course SB has come out with some interesting board concepts, some have worked and some haven't...but I feel they've contributed to the evolution of the sport.

I know that you may say some of these things have been done before and they have, but NP & SB stand out as having followed through to make some of these designs commercially viable and also set a trend for others.

Who brought out the first clamp on boom? Chinook? Whoever did gets my vote. Mr Tuttle for inventing the bolt through finbox comes in second for me.

The overall champs are Drake and Schweitzer.

An interesting one is Gaastra - with the commercial design disaster that was the TotalFlow concept. Commercially it sucked, needing a new mast length for those sails really damaged it.

that being said - the sails themselves where pretty goddamn fast, and were really the first to examine the "floppy leech" concept where the head of the sail twisted away. I think NP developed the ShearTip concept around the same time.

If you look at pretty much all sails before this, the leech cut away almost directly to the boom, and so could never become loose and allow the sail to breath and increase stability. today pretty much all sails have a square head to allow for that leech twist.

I reckon thats a pretty big step in sail development there.

Have to say "Amac" for inventing the computer program that all the main sail makers use or have used to design the sails.

GEORGE GREENOUGH, is by far is the god father of sailboarding,first with 100% carbon mast,100%carbon one piece boom,full batten wide pocket race sails,carbon race fins cut outs in the sail for the boom all back in the early 1990

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Willaus0001 said...

An interesting one is Gaastra - with the commercial design disaster that was the TotalFlow concept. Commercially it sucked, needing a new mast length for those sails really damaged it.

that being said - the sails themselves where pretty goddamn fast, and were really the first to examine the "floppy leech" concept where the head of the sail twisted away. I think NP developed the ShearTip concept around the same time.

If you look at pretty much all sails before this, the leech cut away almost directly to the boom, and so could never become loose and allow the sail to breath and increase stability. today pretty much all sails have a square head to allow for that leech twist.

I reckon thats a pretty big step in sail development there.

Agreed - but if that is a big step, then you also really have to give thumbs up to NP for what they called "segmented curve seam shaping" in about 1988.
That was the first 3D shaping with seams which was a massive development

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Mark _australia said...

Agreed - but if that is a big step, then you also really have to give thumbs up to NP for what they called "segmented curve seam shaping" in about 1988.
That was the first 3D shaping with seams which was a massive development

Pity they don't do it on most of their sails though [}:)]

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nebbian said...

Mark _australia said...

Agreed - but if that is a big step, then you also really have to give thumbs up to NP for what they called "segmented curve seam shaping" in about 1988.
That was the first 3D shaping with seams which was a massive development

Pity they don't do it on most of their sails though [}:)]

Maybe setting myself up here but don't all sails now have seam shaping (seam cut slightly curved and then sewn straight to give shape?)

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nebbian said...

Mark _australia said...

Agreed - but if that is a big step, then you also really have to give thumbs up to NP for what they called "segmented curve seam shaping" in about 1988.
That was the first 3D shaping with seams which was a massive development

Pity they don't do it on most of their sails though [}:)]

but the worst NP sail is still better than the Best ***y sail[}:)][}:)][}:)]

Ooh now it's on

Go nebbs go ....witty retort....

Ha ha we all have our favourites don't we

I'd just like to point out that it's cheaper not to have seam shaping.

So if cheap sails float your boat (and I don't mean inexpensive [}:)]) then good luck to you

But don't all sails now have seam shaping? I can't imagine any of them not

All sails have used seam shaping since the days of clipper ships. NP's "segmented seam shaping" maybe refers to some negative shaping towards the leach, resulting in the excess material which characterised floppy leaches from the '90s onwards...

Looking at recent history and developments that have significantly contributed to modern windsurfing-

Commendations:

Aerotech for sail materials- having faith in pentex and the first I think to use cuben.

Pryde again for materials- coloured and metal films reducing UV exposure (terrible that they are moving away from that again, probably saves $2 per sail).

Winners:

Starboard- bringing wood construction to the mass market. Innovation in board design- evo's, go's, start's, hypersonic's, significant investment in formula development and bringing slalom back.

North- bringing the most non-essential bits to the market which are often quite good. XT/R & shox extensions make life alot easier, the new boom head system, 3 piece masts, new boom tail system for carbon booms which makes sense but has priced itself out of market.

The rest of the praise goes to the individuals for many small things and in general pushing the concept envelope so apart from those associated with the above-

Dan Kaseler
Patrick Dieltheim

i'd have to say kona-exocet for bringing back longboards...and making them fun to sail.

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wave knave said...

i'd have to say kona-exocet for bringing back longboards...and making them fun to sail.

^
+ 1 from me on the Kona's

Also the Rushwind/Gaastra Gorge Slalom LE from around '88 I thought first really introduced the loose leech concept to the market. (it then took carbon masts and monofilm to really exploit the potential)

the semi-retractable Windsurfer centreboard was a big hit in its day

Bombora for that football fin!!!

Windrush for the Storm10 deckgrip that gave the discerning sailboarder that allover skin exfoliation

#1 innovation would be the marketing teams that have us believe that after 30+ years, Sailboarding is still a developing sport and we require at least one new upgrade per year

#2 Jeff Henderson @ HotSails Maui for making Dacron cool again (&fast&durable&easy to use)

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Waterloo said...

wave knave said...

i'd have to say kona-exocet for bringing back longboards...and making them fun to sail.

^
+ 1 from me on the Kona's

Also the Rushwind/Gaastra Gorge Slalom LE from around '88 I thought first really introduced the loose leech concept to the market. (it then took carbon masts and monofilm to really exploit the potential)

Agreed, but the Rushwind race sails on their alloy mast was geting pretty close to carbon!

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Mark _australia said...

Waterloo said...

wave knave said...

i'd have to say kona-exocet for bringing back longboards...and making them fun to sail.

^
+ 1 from me on the Kona's

Also the Rushwind/Gaastra Gorge Slalom LE from around '88 I thought first really introduced the loose leech concept to the market. (it then took carbon masts and monofilm to really exploit the potential)

Agreed, but the Rushwind race sails on their alloy mast was geting pretty close to carbon!

Agree, but geez I had some catastrophic failures with the alloy masts, nearly sliced a diced.

Still have two Gorge Slalom's in the shed (with the WOD sail and storm sail, oh and the Astro Rock....and the Tiga 268....), can't part with them.

Was Wild Winds the first production monofilm sail maker, and was this an Andrew McDougall company. I'm not sure (old age) but if so, that's another big one for Andrew.

And in reference to Kato's post, Amac is the same Andrew McDougall.

I agree with Wave Knave's Kona-Exocet longboard recommendation and Waterloo's Jeff Henderson's use of dacron again particularly in his SuperFreaks.

Old ideas revisited with a modern twist and it has nothing to do with being kewl with old school. The KISS principle seems to have been forgotten and makes sense in this crazy world of high tech overload. Longboards for use in a wider wind range and water conditions and a tough sail that is so quiet in use.

Me too for Exocet Kona and Hot Sails Superfreak!

Barry Spanier for the "not normal" sail also known as the Rotating Assymetrical Foil
or RAF for short. Changed sail design forever!!

the dude who thought of putting the loop at the top of the sail, to stick a screwdriver through for de-rigging.

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Bondalucci said...

the dude who thought of putting the loop at the top of the sail, to stick a screwdriver through for de-rigging.

and don't forget the bungee cord thingo to stop the sail unrolling

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Bondalucci said...

the dude who thought of putting the loop at the top of the sail, to stick a screwdriver through for de-rigging.

He's a WA bloke

The esky and the twist of beer cap.

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elmo said...

Bondalucci said...

the dude who thought of putting the loop at the top of the sail, to stick a screwdriver through for de-rigging.

He's a WA bloke

does he own a windsurf shop ?

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WINDY MILLER said...

elmo said...

Bondalucci said...

the dude who thought of putting the loop at the top of the sail, to stick a screwdriver through for de-rigging.

He's a WA bloke

does he own a windsurf shop ?

maybe
used to manually tie loops on sails till they listened

chinook winde up

micro- adjustment bases from 2nd wind, forget who makes them

shorter luff sails

boom cutouts

me, for building myself a sled that works on ice n snow
this way I can windsurf almost all year long :-)
this winter in Canada we did not have great winds
hope you guys had em all down under :-)
now get ready to give em back to us ...

joewindsurfer.blogspot.com

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ka43 said...

Barry Spanier for the "not normal" sail also known as the Rotating Assymetrical Foil
or RAF for short. Changed sail design forever!!

I agree, the RAF concept was probably the biggest development in windsurfing sails, it was the lynch pin that lead to the sails that most of us sail today. Personally I think everything else is just evolutionary development, the twist off leech, shorter luffs, new materials, boom cut out etc etc, none of them changed the path of sail design like the RAF concept.

I'd also have to say Starboard have been the force that have pushed the board development over the years and are the main reason boards are so short and wide these days (comparatively). Sure, other people come along and take the concepts further and arguably improve them but it's usually Starboard who tried it first; this is the beauty of being a big player in the game with a lot of resources at your disposal.