ARCWingsail said..
In very near feature new wing sail will make its debut on the market. But, does it really worth to switch into totally new sail system? After all, we have so much gear that already clogged our cars and garages.
Well, superiority of the wing over single sheet (or very thing) sail has been proved long time ago by Wright Brothers. For a while, many sail designers tried (and fail) to create successful wing. Most difficult problem is, to make sail reversible and maintain very specific aerodynamic profile. Many sail designs (if not all) ended up as a thick symmetrical profile with slight curvature. Even AC72 multimillion dollar catamaran has symmetrical wing with a flap, despite how funny its sounds. You know, but I like their graphics, and colors, very cool.
It took for me more than two years, by trial and error, to create reversible wing system. My agenda was: Make sail revisable (of course), modular (so it?s easy to replace parts), floatable, light, and affordable.
I?m not going to describe boring process of the creation, so strait to the chase:
Sail have tree air inflated balloons running alone the mast. These balloons compressed between vertical stretch line and mast, spaced by rotational cams. Because balloons compressed, they spring out on side of the sail just like battens, in mechanics it?s called over the center trigger.
Rite under the boom, sail has camber inducing mechanism, designed to prevent sail from becoming symmetrical when loaded. Left and right panels of the sail, joined by leading edge and fully opened on the back, so water can easily flow.
Now, about performance: Sail with wing, is totally different attitude. Sail feels and performs like a very serious wind machine. Let?s get from water start: Sail never sinks, actually I need to hold it down a bit because it wants to fly. Pull a bit forward by the boom and it?s taking off into the air. Ones over the head, sheet very carefully, because it?s going to throw you over to other side. This is proper aerodynamics, more gas=more power, as simple as that. One?s on the board, it rides very smooth, you not going to feel speed but it rides very fast , so I suggest helmet. Jibes are very smooth, even on light wind I have to wait till my speed on the jibe become slower than the wind, so I can rotate sail. Long rides are very pleasant, you are not going to feel load on the back leg due to fixed center of lift.
Also, I don?t know what the wind limit is yet. Sail is 6.5 meters, and it is wind hungry, doesn?t matter how hard it blows, it can handle more. In light conditions, it takes on the plane much faster than regular sail with same area does. I?m sure, in the feature, one wing sail will replace whole bundle of sails that you have now, as it did for me.
Look out for ARCwingsail.com, coming soon?!
See you on the water!

nebbian said..

We're not talking about kitewings again are we?

boardboy said..

cough cough bulli**

boardboy said..

cough cough bulli**

pepe47 said..

Hi Arcwingsail, can you explain this a little further?

Rite under the boom, sail has camber inducing mechanism, designed to prevent sail from becoming symmetrical when loaded. Left and right panels of the sail, joined by leading edge and fully opened on the back, so water can easily flow.

I'm just a bit confuddled about the water flow bit...

Ben Severne said..

I reckon it looks cool!

ARCWingsail said..




I understand your skepticism and disbelieve. Many sail designers tried, and actually announced wing sail concept that never happened. Most of them end up with thick symmetrical sail, others, like Huru sails, end up with thick pocket in front. Neither of these designs have any superiority over traditional design that we use now. My concept is very different from anything that had been done. All parts are different from traditional sail parts and need to be fabricated from scratch: batten tensions, one sided interlaced battens, cam holders, and downhaul hook, camber inducing mechanism and monofilm surfaces.
Finally, after 2 years of development, after I got real result with GPS data, I can come to this forum and tell you all about it.

Mobydisc said..

Looking forward to seeing some photos, video or GPS results comparing your development to known designs.

elmo said..

Cool, it's nice to see some experimental innovation going on

Ben Severne said..

I reckon it looks cool!

pepe47 said..

The 4th image in the pics detailed it a bit better than my understanding of the concept. I recall a conversation with Nebbs about bladders in a sail previously, but it seems you've captured what we couldn't quite work out. Well done. Very innovative.
And thanks for the explanation.

boardsurfr said..

Looks cool. I think this has promise, but how do you keep the weight down? Seems you'd end up with a sail that's either twice as heavy as others, or (if you use thinner film) rather fragile.

Mobydisc said..

Looking forward to seeing some photos, video or GPS results comparing your development to known designs.

ARCWingsail said..



Now about performance. From the start I will answer to everyone ask question: IS IT FASTER? Yes, this sail goes faster than anything you ever had. Let me explain you why I giving you this rather bold answer, without going to hot spot and breaking speed record. Let?s start with traditional design. As you speed up with traditional sail and relative wind (in my estimation for 6.5 m) riches 32.5 kt. , leading edge start failing (stall) this is where you feel pull on the back hand, could be corrected with more outhaul, (detune), from that point if wind speed increases about 3-5 kt sail will fail miserably, you need to rig smaller, and so on. Nothing of this will happen to wing sail. Very simple: more wind, more speed.
In my quest during the whole course of development, I used same board, same boom, same mast, same fin on the same bay, collecting and comparing GPS data btw reg. and wing. Now, I can tell you, wing, is superior to traditional sail by any means, it starts from the moment when you pick it up from the ground.