Stan , I hope you have a great day sailing your STORM today an enjoy every second of it .
I had the best day ever sailing my last proto (even if it got ruined doing so...)
Keep up the good work !
This makes me think of a reverse evolution scenario.
Say this product came out in the mid 80's, as is, at first people loved it, but they soon wanted something easier and quicker to rig and sail.
The bladder first gets shrunk, then after a bit, it gets replaced with a foam insert, then after a bit more time, that gets eliminated for foam wedges that act as battens. Then after a few years, somebody comes up with the unique idea of a single sail with a mast sleeve (no blending of two sails), people really start to love that.
The next thing you know, the most popular sail for speed ends up looking something like a S2maui Venom, and at a much lower price, everybody is finally happy.
Your product is definitely not for the masses, but maybe a very small engineering niche group at best, IMO, of course.
Has anyone used one yet ?
I'm keen to see and try what Stan has spent a lot of time and money persisting with an idea that most have said " won't work, being done before ". That sounds like the arguments against the sailrocket before it smashed all existing speed records.
I followed this developer for a few years and his attention to detail and design is excellent and I hope it works as we've reached nearly the end of our sail design limit . I hope we can get him to Oz for everyone to see the proof of the product.
There will always be a "coolness" factor that may be missing here. The desire to have a sail like Bjorns or Antoine's. The knowledge that they had success on them and maybe you could too. Skodas are now fantastic cars, very much identical to a vw, but for me skoda used to be weird cars and I would still prefer the vw.
So many expert critics....
we have wine critics, movie critics, food critics, book critics and now Sail design critics
Don't let them wind you up, when they've made a Sail better than yours they're criticism will have some legitimacy.
I will look forward to hearing from someone who's actually ridden one.
I like original thinkers who question the generally accepted "wisdom". By definition, they have to disagree with "the authorities" in the field, and think that "the authorities" are wrong.
I also like if someone follows up on his ideas with years of development, and eventually ends up with a prototype that works. Even of the sail is in production now, it is still an early prototype in comparison to other sails in the market which are based on many years of successive refinements.
But there's absolutely no reason to be disrespectful towards others. Using words like "silly", "terrible", and even "**" is counterproductive, and just falls back on you. MWsails is doing himself a big disservice here.
I am quite willing to believe that an asymmetric foils sail could theoretically perform better than the current thin foils. But the current claims are that (1) the sail is easier to waterstart, (2) the sail is more stable, and (3) it has a larger wind range.
Point 1 seems logical. A race sail that's just lying on top of the water, without water in the mast sleeve, is easier to waterstart than anything else.
Point 2 (higher stability) is interesting, and would require verification by other testers who are trusted (and less abrasive than the developer). However, compared to very good modern sails, I am not sure how much can be gained. Even my 4-batten freestyle sails that are 3-4 years old have quite an amazing stability. My newer 4-cam race sails are stable. Period. Of course, they also have a large mast sleeve, and so share some design characteristics with the asymmetrical foil sail.
Point 3 is largely a consequence of point 2. I have no problems re-rigging when the wind changes, and bet I can rig any two of my sails faster than MWsails can rig one of his. But nevertheless, this is interesting. Some years ago, kiters would switch kites about as much as windsurfers switched sails when the wind changed. Now, I almost never see a kiter change to a smaller kite when the wind picks up; the modern kites seem to have a larger range, and that's great. More range in windsurf sails would be a good thing.
However, a closer look shows that more range holds only limited attraction. For for freestyling, the MWsail is no use - to heavy and no "neutral". The same is probably true for wave sailing. For speedsailing and slalom, many of the windsurfers I know are quite particular about having exactly the right sail size on the water. I know guys can hold a 6.3 in 40 knots. They may be well powered on the same sail in 30 knots, but will change sails because they want a bit more power and speed. Another guy always rigs 2-3 sails and has the sail-board combos on the beach. He'll come in an switch gear when the wind changes by a few knots. Not because he has to - his sails have plenty more range. It's because he wants things to feel "just right". A sail with even more range would not change that.
But perhaps a sail with more range would be attractive to many free riders who don't like re-rigging. But so far, the only evidence that we have about the MWsails having more range is the claim of the guy who wants to sell them. He's posted a few videos of himself sailing, put simply put, they are useless (unless you want to study his facial expressions). Sorry, MWsails, but your camera mount positions suck. Get a decent mast mount and a ClewView . Get some footage where someone else films you, and footage where the water actually looks like it's blowing above 35 knots.
Nothing wrong with a bit of bravado MWsails, everyone else does it! However it's a fine line, and I think some of your bravado is getting lost in translation. Some of the naysayers would perhaps react a little differently if it was presented slightly differently, and I guess that's why marketing exists, even Boeing needs it...
Even you own diagrams are not without criticism, for example diagram 1 is either for a 2D foil, or a some undefined 3D foil where the effects of aspect ratio, taper and sweep are disregarded. But none of that actually matters if your sails just "works".
Once again good luck, what your trying to do is not easy and it's great your trying different things, and I hope all your hard work pays off.