SCALING
When designing a range of sails you can’t just design one and scale it up and down. There is certainly an element of scaling but one thing I like to achieve is for all the different sized sails in a range to feel the same. So when you jump from from a 5.3m to a 3.7m they have the same characteristics and don’t feel alien to each other. What works in a big sail or what works in a small sail can be totally different. We are lucky here in Gran Canaria because we get strong winds and light winds so we can test pretty much any size sail over the year. There are not many other places you can test a 3.4m that often. I have done loads of testing with the small sails and found out quite a bit from that which is applied in elements across all the ranges. Certain elements of that can even be inverted and reapplied to bigger sails, so although it is not a linear scaling, I think all the information you gather really helps.
I try to test sails from other brands a lot as well, it is really important to do that in my opinion to help keep your mind open. If you go down your own route all the time you sometimes get closed to what is going on around you. I think it is really beneficial to have a feel of every sail, whether it has won tests or performed really badly. It is always useful to see where our sails sit against other models, so you know where you are and that your speed, power and feel is how you want it. I have always tried to get involved when magazines have tested in Tenerife or Gran Canaria. It is not copying but just good to be aware of the direction and trying as many sails as possible to see what aspects feel good or bad and maybe apply them to different ranges.