I treid to bump up this old thread but Seabreeze would not let me. It is defininitly worth another look if you have not seen it recently.

I was reminded of it becasue I re-discoved some old sails of this vintage when cleaning up a shed the other day. :-)

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Gps/Sandy-Point-Trip-1989-I-think?page=1

My wife decided we had to tidy up one of the sheds yesterday and I found some almost forgotten sails hidden in the corner with evidence of a Possum nest on top of them. These were Wild Winds Sails designed and built by Andrew McDougal who later (1990) founded KA Sails Australia. I think they had avoided being sold off simply becasue they are so small that there was really no market for them. They avoided being dumped in the tip because they were hidden away for so long. Now I would not dare destroy them .

They are 1989 (I think) Speed Trial sails and one World Tour Race sail. The speed sails are 3.2m and 3.7m and the World Tour Race is probably a 3.5m! (No marking) and it was previously unrigged. The reason why they were built so small is mainly because of the 1989 Sandy Point Speed Trials held just before, when we has a solid 50 knots of wind all day and few has sails small enough to handle it. That was the day Mal Wright exceeded the then existing world record speed with a 250m run of 41.5 knots on a 3.8m sail. Few who did not have a sail smaller than 3.5m made it down the course that day! They were made right before KA was founded and I put KA stickers on a couple in case I needed to use them a couple of years later before KA built the first small Koncepts.

I hung the sails up to wash them and later rigged a couple on a 4m Gaastra mast of similar vintage. That particular mast was the very first mast I saw that was less than the standard 450-460cm long! The 3.2m speed trail and the 3.5m Race sail actually looked pretty good (given their vintage) but I didnt have a boom anywhere near short enough for them now (needed about 130cm). I cant remember using the 3.2m sails very often, but I do remember using the 3.7m sails quite a bit whenever the winds got over 30 knots.







Two 3.7m Speed sails on the left, and the 3.5m World Tour Race on the right.

3.2m sails. The right one is factory standard, the left has the luff curve modified.


In the early 90's I removed the Wild Winds Logos and put a KA sticker on this one.


A 3.2m rigged on a similar vintage 4m Gaastra mast. (The first sub 450cm mast I ever saw!). I dont have a boom short enough anymore (130cm)!








This is the 3.5m World Tour Race rigged on the same mast. It doesnt actually look too bad, but it may or may not sail as well as it looks.




I remember using the 3.7m sails quite a bit in the early 90's, but I dont remember much use of the 3.2m ones. However, here is a video where I did use it. 2.9m Gaastra in the front, 3.2m Wild Winds on the back. Wind strength would have been mid to high 30's (The pic in my avatar is the same tendem with a NP 3.5m speed sail on the front and the Orange luff WW 3.7m speed in the pics above on the back)

Great archive pics Mr Quik! Makes me want to dig out my ol WildWinds 6.5 n 7.2 just to check those 80s colours again. Both sails still in great condition. Hmmm maybe a retro sailday on the cards. Still using my original blue soft rope uphaul to this day. Ol habits die hard.

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sailquik said..
I treid to bump up this old thread but Seabreeze would not let me. It is defininitly worth another look if you have not seen it recently.

I was reminded of it becasue I re-discoved some old sails of this vintage when cleaning up a shed the other day. :-)

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Gps/Sandy-Point-Trip-1989-I-think?page=1

Fantastic photos!
It looks that more people sailed then on the best today.How did you measured speed back then? ??
I believe it was way before GPS was even invented...

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Macroscien said..
Fantastic photos!
It looks that more people sailed then on the best today.How did you measured speed back then? ??
I believe it was way before GPS was even invented...

The first electronic (Laser) speed gates were built here for the 1988 speed event. Each year we had a new system for a few years as none really worked totally reliably (some or many missed runs). The last set we used in about 93-94 used security cameras, video recorder and a screen-spit box for hand timing off the video, and video backup verification for the best runs. That one was the most reliable. Almost no runs were lost or missed, but it was very labour intensive, both in use, hand timing, and especially going through hours of tape trying to find the best runs that evening.

But at around that time we also had the "Speedwatch" speedo, which relied on a tiny plastic prop. trailed off the fin on a fishing line thread. It produced a magnetic pulse which was picked up by the screen unit Velcroed on the rear Footstrap, but it was only a live display. It did not save any top speeds. . It was 'interesting' sometimes trying to look down at your back foot in the heat of a good run! There was a very similar version (I think it was called 'SpeedMate') available in the USA which did save the top speed of each run, but they never made it to Australia.

Note: That is why you sometimes see tiny holes drieed in the trailing edge of a lot of old speed fins.

We gave up trying to run speed trials in the early 90's as we were pretty much over the tedium of setting up the gates and all the hundreds of meters of CoAx cable that went with it, and all the mapower needed to run things (we had, and needed a dedicated club crew of over a Dozen people to run the High Wind Carnivals!). Incidentally, I threw out a 250m roll of the last remaining CoAx cable from my shed yesterday.

Speed was pretty much as dead thing for 10 years until around 2004 when suitable GPS devices (Garmin Etrex, Foretrex201) and software (RealSpeed) came along. The first GPS Speedweek at Sandy Point, organised by Ian Fox and Mal Wright, was a resounding success and the rest is history you probably know.

Thanks a lot for clarification,.
You are walking encyclopedia with all Information on subjects and permanent memory .I am also a bit that with access to newest technology and equipment, nowadays , many, including me can not get even close to results achieved 2 or 3 decades ago!
Full respect to heroes !BTW What did happen to our winds nowadays?
I am a bit jelous about yours +40 ktn gusts
My smallest sail is 4.2 and I use maybe twice in lifetime , never complained to be overpowered...

What was typical mast high of your small sails back then?
Looks on the photo that modern mast is a bit too tall for older sails.
If mast were made of aluminium or fiberglass?

You just live in the wrong Lattitudes for regular strong winds Macro. Down South here it's the regular system Cold Fronts that bring the strong winds.

In the early '80's, all, the masts we could get were 450cm long and fibreglass. Even small storm sails were set on them and usually had a good proportion of the mast clear and free of the top of the sail.

Later in the 80's we used Sefiac Aluminium masts. In particular, the Serfiac Gold 460cm mast and cut (usually) 50cm off the bottom of it for the smaller sails. The first 4m Gaastra fiberglass mast I saw was around the late 80's, and at about then I remember seeing Fiberspar Carbon masts available, but I couldn't afford them at the time. I think NP had carbon masts by the late '80's as well.

I got some No Limitz one piece Carbon masts in the early 90's (still the lightest masts I have had) but they were 460cm as well. I used a few bottom cut fiberglass and Alloy masts for smaller sails right up until the mid 90's i recon, when I finally got shorter Carbon masts and eventually, in the 2000's, got smaller RDM masts.

Somewhere in the shed I also have a 4m SDM locally made fiberglass mast that I got in the 90's. Cant remember the brand...

The first 4.4m KA Koncepts in 2006 where an absolute revolution. So stable and easy! Sooo many 40+ knots runs where done on them in the Glory days at Sandy Point. They were set up only for RDM 370 mast.

After the stupendously windy Speedfortnight day on 27-09-2009, Spottys 50 knot day , we convinced Amac to build us a 4m Koncept (340 mast), but they were rarely used, as the 4.4m was still a better sail on pretty much any day when the conditions were sailable. In around 2012-13 KA 's small sails became lower aspect and they KA a 4.2m Koncept for a few years. the 4.4m grew to 4.6m, I have only used the 4.2m's once or twice but i still keep the 2014 one in the shed just in case.... These days I seem to be able to handle most winds, that it are sane to sail in, with the current 4.7m Koncept/Speed. (I am 75Kg)


I forgot that the 4.4m Koncept became a 4.3m in 2010, but it was essentially the same sail as the 4.4m.
Here it is next to the 2014 4.2m:




And an earlier - maybe 2012- 4.2m Koncept

Wow, your old sails looks still like brand new!! Do you wash them in fresh water after sail and dry with towel?
mine after 2 -3 years are teared to parts, but yep, that one and the same sail used 95% of the time. 7.8mand i call 7.0 my small , strong wind sail.
BTW I have 5.0 Koncept that proved itself on Green Island insane windy competition few year back.Rigged on 370, RDM, full carbon. Love it stability.I keep it for my first 40ktn occasion , but such never happen so far , strong wind + flat water

You need to travel South Macro. A LONG was south!

Interesting to hear about Sandy Point / speed sailing history.

Here is a matching World Tour Race sail in 7.5m size. I bought this new from SHQ in I think 1994 but was older season model maybe 1992? Was used on old AHD 'astro surf' eliminator, probably used it only about 10 times so still in good condition.