TESTING
Our typical testing schedule revolves mainly around Cape Town and Fuerteventura, but we are still active the rest of the year. Normally in Fuerte we come up with a few different concepts to test. Typically we will choose 1 size, something like a 4.8, and then make 3 or 4 protos trying different things, often quite radical. We test those sails whilst everyone is together and see what the feelings are. Often we then modify these sails, right there in Fuerte, and test them again. From there, we choose the better concepts, look to develop them further and often make a couple more protos for the guys to test in the autumn, with Sylt being the perfect opportunity to at least get everyone together and discuss where we are at. After that we normally aim to really refine the concept and push to make the final set of sails for testing in Cape Town. Normally these go straight into production, but there is still a little room to tweak or modify them further if we think it’s necessary. Then the whole process starts again. I think the freestyle discipline is probably the hardest to design for because the sport is constantly evolving. Slalom is lots of work, but in the end the parameters more or less stay the same each year, for example the sails need to go fast, accelerate well, have power but stay controllable. With freestyle, these parameters are constantly changing as the moves and styles change and develop. A few years ago when we started the Style Pro, the sail needed to duck well and that was the most important thing. Then they needed to duck well and have lots of pop/power. Now it seems like the guys are sailing much more powered up than before and using the wind to really fly. Therefore the emphasis is now really on control, and less about maximising the power. Who knows where it will go next, but it means we are constantly working hard to give the guys the best tools to compete with. This year with all the success of Jacopo Testa and the rest of the team we really proved we have a sail that is capable of doing anything.