Maui Monthly no. 30. October 2007

no. 30. October 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

© PWA / Carter

Kevin : Time flies when you are busy…

October started slow sitting around in Tiree for two weeks, but then flew by like a Lear jet for the second half. It kicked into high gear as soon as we stepped off the plane in Los Angeles. I took a road trip up the coast of California taking some nice pictures along the way. The only bummer about it, yep you guessed it, it was windy nearly the entire time at one my favorite places to sail in California, and I didn’t have any of my gear. Rookie maneuver there, but had fun being a tourist. The trip took us along Highway 1 from San Luis Obispo to the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, where I shot a wedding. The wedding was a huge success, and Ben and Shari (the happy couple) were so satisfied with the shots, so that was great. Wedding photography is a bit like a wave sailing heat. The pressure is on, there’s no going back and doing it over, you must get it right and give it your best!

After the wedding we bolted down Highway 5 to just get to LA on time before all the fires in California, and caught the plane to Maui. Ahh, it was great to be home on Maui. The air, the water, the wind… it was so nice. My first couple days on the water were fun but I was so rusty. I think that was the longest time I’ve been out of the water for a couple years since I broke my foot. I hadn’t sailed good conditions for almost a month. It was good to get out on the water and start ripping it up.

The new TR-4 prototypes came in and they are have an evolved feeling, and go a lot faster than the TR-3s. We are making good progress on this and have a couple more prototypes to go before we can put them into production.

Until then see you on the water!!

Kevin.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 30. October 2007

Martin : Nautical Mile record hunting The last couple of weeks have been pretty frustrating since the fall gales never hit us. At the end of last week it seemed as if all of a sudden all possible low pressure systems in Europe were on but hope flew away just as fast when every six hours a system fell apart leaving us with virtually nothing. Still one prediction held: a Tramontana in France.

As I was eager to finally have a go in strong wind and two friends invited me to drive down with them I decided to give it a shot and hope for the best.

Finally I could have the opportunity to give the smallest sail sizes a fair test at La Franqui and Port La Nouvelle, two very windy spots in the south of France. A moderate to strong Tramontana was predicted as we headed South to try and go for the Nautical Mile record. The wind came indeed but it turned out to be too strong for the speed strip to hold. North East of us a strong Northerly Mistral decided to combine strength with the Tramontana bringing a small swell and gusts up to 65 knots, so far for moderate haha...

I decided to rig my 4.7 and it performed wonderfully. While pointing upwind to get enough length in for the Nautical I noticed the sand banks were curved like bananas roped together making it virtually impossible to stick close to the shore in the hammer gusts. I got up to a GPS peak speed of around 45 knots pretty quick but immediately felt an attack on the Nautical was out of the question since the chop built up only 5 metres from the shore. I tried to put in a bit

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

bigger fin and take the 4.3 to be able to cope with the gusts a little better and try and follow the shoreline but when I was ready rigging the wind turned North and rolling chop made it impossible to drive down the speed strip.

We had a nice dinner on the campground and hoped for the best. The next day the wind was just as strong but now a small swell came with it as well, a very uncommon situation we were told by the locals. I decided to sit it out since conditions weren’t good enough for an attack on the nautical mile and I didn’t want to destroy my gear when conditions would change in the end.

The next day the swell got up a little more but the average wind was a little bit less with gusts up to 45 knots making it possible to go deep downwind and sail fully lit from the sandbanks out in the open sea. It was funny to watch the crashes and luckily nobody lost his kit. Since it was getting clear a nautical attack was out of the question, it was a good test for both the rigs and the fins and we just went for it. Boogie made me some new asymmetrical fins which I knew wouldn’t spin out on me. One run I decided to go even a bit deeper in a near 50 knot gust to see if my gut feeling was correct and yes, it held during one of the scariest but also most thrilling speed rides I ever experienced. The sails, fins and board rock, I had a great couple of days, just back from a long trip and in need for a good night sleep. The record hunt has to wait a little longer but at least I don’t have to wonder about the performance of my smallest gear anymore.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 30. October 2007

Taty : October What a month After Sylt I came back to Bonaire so that I can participate in the 40th International Bonaire regatta. I love this regatta because it is where you get the most publicity on the ABC island, and in the newspaper and on the radio. This is good:) The Bonaire regatta started and finish off with light wind.

We had seven races with wind 10-15 knots. My largest sail was a 10.5 TR-1 that I had to borrow from a friend of mine.

With four days of racing and no promise of stronger wind for the whole week, you couldn’t make any mistakes. My brother Choco and five other sailors were really hungry to win the regata and I could see that they wanted to beat me so bad.

In the first race I had a late start and finished fifth. After that I didn’t make any mistakes and was right on the starting line with clean wind and good board speed. I crossed the finish line 15 to 20 minutes before the next finisher! That was the first time I use a 10.5 sail.

October is always the worst month on Bonaire. NO WIND. 75% percent of rain and very hot. Didn’t get to do much the whole month, just waiting for the wind, and hangout with my friends.

I will leave soon to Thailand for board testing for Starboard.

Bye, bye - Taty

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Femke Women Dutch Wave Champion!

On 29th of October we had the Dutch Wave Championships at Wijk aan Zee; one of the top wave spots in Holland.

To insure the correct conditions exist for a National Championship event here in the Netherlands, we now use a system of watching for the weather and calling for the event via broadcast email the day before. A perfect weather forecast held the promise of 20 knots projected for the day so everybody was excited for the event to happen and bring out the best sailors for high level action.

When I arrived at the beach it was already crowded with lots of vans and trailers packed with equipment. Off course the first thing I did was check out the wind and waves which showed classic North Sea conditions perfect for the Nationals so I was really pumped to go sailing. At 11.30 we had the skippers meeting. There would be a heat duration of ten minutes and a two minute transition. This sounded good. There were 7 women which is more than the turn out for last year’s championships. This was great news of course. We would have at least 2 groups in the first elimination round and on the list I could see that there would be some really experienced and good wave sailors like Julia Meyer, Cilia Swinkel and Merel Rip. The wind looked good for my 4.7M Legend and 76 Guerilla and throughout the day despite a dying breeze this combination worked out perfect. For me and my wave riding style the 4.7 delivers the most range and gives me confidence in a really comfortable setup. Near to the start of the Women’s heats I decided it was time to go for a spin to see how everything worked. This was good; it made me warmer and put me in a rhythm with the conditions and my equipment. So when our heat came up I felt really relaxed.

The wind got a little lighter during the day but I was planing and taking waves. With the wind backing off the waves were getting cleaner so wave riding was really nice now.

For the first time I could make over 5 bottom turns on one wave. Here in Holland! I advanced through the first heat and ended up in the final against Julia, Cilia and Arrianne; all great sailors. The wind was getting so light in the final that planing was a challenge. I was floating outside, looking for the right turn on a wave and then making the most of the ride to the inside, then go out and try to do this as often and as long as possible. I did get two really nice long rides.

With the results held until the Prize Giving; first announced; Cilia came in third. Then, Julia in second and I……. I won!!!!!!

I was sooo happy; especially because I didn’t expect this result at all. A very competitive event this year with more great sailors coming forward and testing their skills in an event made even better by waiting for the right conditions.

Aloha, Femke van der Valk.

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 30. October 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Artur makes TR-4 Faster and Better This month’s focus at the loft has been TR-4 development.

Our focus this year is on fine - tuning the major changes that we made with the TR-3. We are also striving to improve durability in high wear areas, give the sails a better overall look and of course make them faster.

Last year, with the TR-3 we made some pretty radical changes from the previous race sails. We made great progress in developing a new twist profile, which proved to be highly efficient. This was accomplished through some original ideas in seam shaping which we developed with the TR-3. The addition of the wide sleeve and tuning it to the sail body was also a major step for our race sails last year. All these major changes last year made for a lot of recuts, rethinking and learning new ideas. It was a real relief when the sails were finally ready for production.

This year, with the TR-4, it is great for us to have the opportunity to tackle the fine details. We are going through the sails size by size and tuning the sails based on feedback from our teamriders.

One of the objectives is for more power in the lower portion of the sail with a slightly softer, more efficient upper profile.

We have been looking at the twist very closely to ensure that it is uniform and progressive along the entire leech. There is also time to refine the tension on the wide sleeve to ensure a super clean and smooth leading edge profile.

On the water, the last few weeks have been great with some North swell and good trades. The forecast calls for bigger stuff on the way so hopefully we’ll get an early taste of winter.

Aloha, Artur Szpunar Don’t miss visiting our website where we just relased 2008 sails range. www.MauiSails.com

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Maui Monthly | Our Experience Your Reward no. 30. October 2007

Maui, Hawaiian Islands

Not spooky yet October was a great month for steady working on new things. As a month, October is usually a grindstone period.

The final samples of 2008 Freeride sails were approved and put into full production, the TR-4s were getting on the water with some good results, and every day found some challenge resolved. All very satisfying.

One of the highlights of the month was hooking up with Randy Coon of Trilogy Excursions, one of the founding helpers of MauiSails. He just delivered his new 64’ (20M) all carbon trimaran from Seattle. Designed by Kurt Hughes and Robert Perry for fast cruising, we were on board for a passage from Lahaina to Ko’olina Marina on Oahu, a voyage of about ninety miles. As soon as we got into the channel we were doing ten to twelve knots with ease, and in the full trades and open swell, we rolled along doing fifteen to eighteen with dry decks. She was docile and easy to steer, and the fourteen people on board had nothing but fun for the eight or so hours it took to make the crossing.

Another fun project was the resurrection of a ten year old design for my friend Kurt Denk, the organizer of the IronmanT Triathalon (www.ironman.de). Kurt has been coming to Maui for forty years from Germany, and three years ago he began trying to get me to make him a copy of his favorite sail, a 5.2 cambered race sail. I finally was able to find some old data and organize it. A midnight oil project all the way, with lots of digging in deep storage for little parts and pieces left over from all the years back, and it finally came together with every original piece, something you probably couldn’t do anywhere but here. He was able to test against his old, tired sail and said the new one was even better. Now he’s a happy guy. And he also has a collection of TR-2 and 3 as well, so the new and the old are alongside now.

I’m ready for getting the rest of 2007 work done and head for a new year. Lots to look forward to.

Aloha, Barry

2008 Sail Range Lately we have released our 2008 sail range. Now you can have a look at your favorite sail new look, it’s unique features and start asking local dealer when they will be available. Probably many of you are curies about TR-4 but you need to wait till another Maui Monthly where it should be officially released.

Also to let you understand better our wave sails philosophy we prepared separate page showing the difference between our two wave sails – Legend vs Global. After reading this material you should exactly know what sail model you want to have in your quiver.

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