“ You have to fit your style of sailing to whatever board you ride ” ROSS WILLIAMS
ROSS WILLIAMS
“It felt pretty sweet winning a final on my 6.4 and my 98 litre, 61 wide small board in Fuerteventura. It’s not just the board or the sail that make your ride comfortable. It’s the board, the sail, the fin, the mast, the boom height, the harness line length, the harness, the sailor and his style, everything goes together to make a racing machine. On my Manta I have my footstraps all the way back: that feels great to me. I just try and find out the settings that suit the way I ride. You have to fit your style of sailing to whatever board you ride. You can do that with the fin size and where you put the mast foot and footstraps. I have my harness lines as short as possible without being overpowered but long enough to handle the big gusts. In the final they were around 32 cm, just enough so I could feel a bit of tension in my back. I used a waist harness and under the board a 32 fin. There are no secrets with my fins, anybody can go out and buy the same fin. The sail was a stock Gaastra that was sent to me from the warehouse. Ben Van Der Steen is in charge of the sail development. We are always looking for a sail that is faster, easier, with a better low end and that has more control in the high wind. We are looking for something with a decent range and that is comfortable to use; you don’t want to be pulled out of the water when you are sailing in a final or a semi-final. I think our gear is pretty fast and comfortable, it is not a magic recipe. I knew already in April that I would be riding that gear. I tested the different board and sail sizes with different fins, masts and all the variables and once I was happy with my results I knew I just had to go out and race. I knew I was as fast and comfortable as I could be on that gear so after that it’s just about going to races and it’s more about the sailor and how the dice rolls for you. Gaastra, Tabou are smaller than the other brands. We try to do things as efficiently as possible. Cederic Bordes has a very important input, he tries all the boards and lives close to Fabien our shaper. We know where we are against the other guys and we know what we want from our gear. Solid R and D pays off. We did not have many races so far this season so we have not had that much chance to show how amazing the gear is! I was in Maui at the beginning of the season using the GPS a lot to help me test. I would sail with anyone that wanted to sail with me. Whoever was there at the time, whatever the wind was, we would test. All the top guys test pretty comprehensively at the start of the season. It’s all about putting in the time! The first time I tried the Mantra this year I knew it was more my style. Last year’s board was a bit of a handful. No matter what I did I kept feeling my front foot was going to come out. It was not gybing so well either. This new board is just a machine to gybe. Cederic has done an awesome job there!”
CEDERIC BORDES
“At Tabou we try and keep a similar shape to our boards most years. We only change when we find an improvement or a better shape. This year we made the boards a little bit more compact. There is a little bit less vee to make it easier to ride and sit on the water. It is still the same size board, which is big for these conditions. In the racing here the reaches have been very downwind so we go with the wind. You need to plane through the chop with the least amount of resistance possible. It is not the most powerful board but it is a big easy comfortable board and works well in these tough conditions. There are several keys to a great board and that is one of them. The sails are also fast and easy. Sometime they miss a bit of power but when it is 40 knots you don’t need it. I am really happy with the gear. All the boards have cut outs, it is always a balance. You want to release the tail so you have more top speed but if you release it too much you fly on the gusts. Also on the gybe you will have less stability. It is always a balance where you want to put the limit. All brands have cut outs some are bigger than others and I think we are in the middle.”
