In the '50s or early '60s it was used experimentally in dinghy and yacht sails.
Despite all the hype, windsurfing normally lags behind boats in development as far as I can see.
I think I used a sail exactly like that (but in better condition!) at Gerroa last weekend - it rocked, with great low-down power.
that aint monofilm thats scrim mylar ,great when it's brand new ,crap once it starts to delaminate,,,,,,,,, I'd say mid to late 80's.
throw it in the bin it's had it...
I do recall super light wind mylar spinakers in the md to late 70's in americas cup, then those laminated sails mid to late 80's, we got the laminated stuff on landyachts in the early 90's, I have a sail that was used twice from then and is useless now .
. the problem we have with monofilm is if you leave it rolled up in our hot sheds for a few months it can snap when you get it out
its a bit out of my time the battens came in the bag with it i dont think you can roll it up without removing them.The little translucent pocket is made of soft plastic type film. It interesting to see how the designs have changed over the years. This sail is a gastra 5.3 wave! Just interested to see what age it came from as the security guard at work who gave it to me said he used to sail when he was my age!
When did the triangular sails come out probably before this one. i seen a guy with one at my local once.
I've still got 2 of those "WaveFoil Pro" wave sails, a 5.8 and 5.2 bought new around '87-'88 (after my previous set of 4 sails were stolen). Beautiful performance sail in its day and the scrim mylar was a new concept too. 5.8 used heavily for 2 years and started delaminating after a season, 5.2 never used. Sat in storage for 20 years and brought out again last year, 5.8 was shedding its mylar in big sheets. 5.2 used for for the first time for 2 days as a learners sail recently and the mylar came away in sheets.
The Gaastra 5.8 it is still a very very light sail compared to a circa '05 5.8 Ezzy LE Wave sail that I've also got. Interesting I laid the Gaastra over the 5.8 Ezzy and the mast curves, foot and lower leech were nearly the same shape.
The hassle I had with these sails was when derigging you need to remove the lower batten so you can roll 'em up...how many times that lower batten fell out of the bag drove me nuts! We were told to remove the upper battens when rolled but most just pulled 'em off the securing strap.
Great sail though. I'm going to peel the remainder of the mylar off and use them, interesting to see how long it would still hold its shape without it. Not long I guess, the dacron is pretty thin.
When was mono film invented...
i feel your pain! many of us want to go back in time and assassinate the inventor (along with the inventor push-up bras and t-shirt bras)
If you Google "Sailcloth" there's a bit of an explanation of polyester films. The precurser to what we know as monofilm would have been invented as Chris said back in the 50's. I don't think "monofilm" is any specific product as such, (and might even be misleading in that the film might be a multilayer structure) so I don't think it is possible to precisely identify when "monofilm" was invented.
I recommend either a warm iron or a blow torch, or a really really big book to press between the pages and leave for at least 3 years.