KEN BLACK
I hang around to chew the fat with Ken for a while and pick his brains about the technical side of the sails. With over thirty years’ experience in sail design, working contently behind the scenes, Ken still maintains his logical approach and dedicated work ethic. “This is not like a normal sail range. The new line is aimed at a wide-sector of uses and we’ve introduced new lighter materials, new head rings and new pulleys to help increase performance. The small sails have to cover quite a wide wind range from learners to a howling gale. We’ve gone for four battens below 5.5 so they’re emphasising lightweight and manoeuvrability. We tested the 5.5 extensively and our riders reckon the new Bolt delivers pretty much the same performance level of all of our previous 5.5s from the outgoing ranges. We have three sails with five battens up to 6.0, then 6.5 upwards we go to six battens with a different configuration for a more slalom-type speed feel. They’re all versatile, easy to rig and easy to use, plus they’ll fit a lot of masts too. It helps me having fewer sails to design, so I can spend more time on each sail, I can try and make each one perfect! I just do my bit and make the sails as good as they can be. Of course we still have a bulletproof Rock for the hard core wave guys, the X15 race sail and the race board sail for longboards”.