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FLASH
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ISAF
Windsurfing Equipment Evaluation
Event |
16
- 19 September 2004 |
GREAT
BRITAIN |
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Part
III Completed |
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Part
III of the Windsurfing Evaluation
event was held from 16 – 19
September on the South of England.
Attending the trials were 5
different manufacturers entering a
total of six designs, all
conforming to the ISAF Hybrid
rules. |
The
ISAF Council at their Mid-Year
meetings in June called for the
trials, where the ISAF Evaluation
Panels proposals of a Hybrid
development class were rejected.
Instead, the Evaluation Panel were
instructed to properly evaluate
the potential of the Hybrid class
and to recommend a one-design
piece of equipment from the trials
for use at the 2008 Olympics in
China.
In order to fully test the
equipment over a wide range of
wind and water conditions, the
trials were held at both Hayling
Island Sailing Club and Queen Mary
Sailing Club. Hayling Island SC is
located at the entrance to
Chichester Harbour and offers
excellent sailing conditions with
flat water in the harbour and more
open water outside. Queen Mary is
very different, being located on a
reservoir just outside of London,
it offers much gentler conditions
with flat water sailing but
slightly trickier wind conditions.
Of the boards that the Evaluation
Panel had tested in Torbole at the
previous trials, all of the
designs had been modified over the
past months, with the only
addition to the group being the
Bic Techno 293D, which had been
absent at Torbole.
The final list of entrants were;
Bic Sport - Techno 293D
Boards and More – Prodigy (Light)
Exocet – Flying Fish
Neil Pryde – Olympic Hybrid
PD Project – Olympias
Starboard – Z-Class (one-design)
The first two days of testing were
to be conducted at Hayling Island
from the 16-17 September. The
forecast for Hayling was for a 15
knot SW breeze for Thursday which
would build to a 20-25 knot wind
on Friday. This offered the
Evaluation Panel the perfect
opportunity to test the boards in
wind and waves that are so often
present at many of the Olympic
Classes Grade 1 events.
ISAF had arranged for 18 different
sailors to attend, some team
riders nominated by the teams and
others who were interested to see
what equipment the next Olympics
could be raced upon. The sailors
represented six different nations
which were Great Britain, France,
The Netherlands, Poland, Norway
and Australia.
The Hybrid class tries to bring
together the best of the different
racing disciplines within the
windsurfing world. The boards are
a loose mix of a Long board and a
Formula board with many showing
the width and rocker profiles of
Formula board to promote early
planning and top high speeds.
Others concentrated more on the
light wind performance, using
innovative bow designs to try and
increase water-line length and
reduce drag through the water.
Generally the boards represented
the Formula type of sailing so
many of the sailors with Long
board backgrounds had to learn a
different type of sailing
experience for the trials.
Thursday saw a lose structure of
testing take place, giving the
sailors the chance to sail and
tune the equipment to the
conditions. Boards and sailors
were split up into a Men’s and a
Women’s fleet. The Men’s fleet
were looked after by Mike Gebhardt
(USA) of the Evaluation Panel,
whilst Jorunn Horgen (NOR) of the
Windsurfing Committee and the
Evaluation Panel took care of the
Women’s fleet.
Both fleets were then split up
again into pairs, with two sailors
tuning up against each other and
looking at the boards performance
on a variety of angles and sailing
characteristics before returning
to the club and switching
equipment.
All boards proved to be fast and
easy to handle upwind in the 15
knot winds and chop, showing good
speed and height. No one board
proved to be exceptional as speeds
would differ as one would catch a
gust and accelerate past others
and then vice versa.
Downwind, again all boards proved
easy to handle with the exception
of the Exocet, whose canoe type
bow proved hard to control in the
waves and was prone to violent
pitch-poling. It was the Formula
type boards of the Neil Pryde and
PD Project that showed the most
promise in the conditions. Also
the new Prodigy showed well and
was popular amongst the sailors at
the end of testing.
After all the boards had been
tested and rotated amongst all of
the pairs, both fleets combined to
hold some informal racing to end
the day. Two quick races were held
compromising of a windward/leeward
lap of about 500m legs. With
racing held within the harbour,
the true speed of the board could
be seen as they whizzed around in
18-20 knot gusts and flat water.
In the gusty and shifty conditions,
it was a mixture of boards that
showed in the results as with the
conditions it was more a case of
sailing ability then true board
performance that came through.
The after race de-brief that was
held with the sailors confirmed
what the Evaluation panel had seen
on the water with many of the
comments showing that the PD
Project, Neil Pryde and Prodigy
were amongst the more popular
designs. Sailors also confirmed
that whilst one of the better
boards to sail upwind, and also
one of the quicker boards, the
Exocet was too much of a hand full
for the waves downwind.
Day two came with a forecast of
15-20 knots increasing with gusts
of 25 knots expected.
With another full rotation
organised, the testing was to
differ slightly with all 6 boards
lined up in each fleet and being
tested against each other at the
same time. Another factor that the
Evaluation panel wanted to look at
was how high up the wind range
could the 10sq m sails be used.
Initially all boards were sailing
almost equally upwind and downwind
in the 18-20 knot breeze. However,
once the tide turned, the
conditions worsened considerably
with a gusts of 25 knots blowing
against the 2 knot current,
creating massive 2m breaking seas
across the sandbar at the entrance
of the harbour. In these survival
conditions, the men were only just
hanging onto the 10sq m sails and
the boards quickly became
un-sailable. Most of the boards
managed to get back to shore
without assistance. Some
incredible wipe-outs were
witnessed as sails and boards did
not all come through unscathed,
with Dan Ellis (GBR) providing the
best of the entertainment, flying
through the sail of the Exocet in
a spectacular crash.
Having sailed for four hours in
the testing conditions, all of the
sailors were exhausted and sailing
then finished for the day. All of
the boards and sails were
de-rigged and packed, ready for
the move up to Queen Mary Sailing
Club the next morning.
Day three saw a convoy of rental
vans going up the M3 to London
with all arriving safely at the
club by 1030 on Saturday morning.
Greeting the sailors was a stiff
15-17 knot breeze although the
washing machine conditions of the
day before were replaced with a
short chop which had built up over
the fetch of the reservoir.
By the time the sailors had got
rigged and ready to go, the breeze
had already dropped to around
10-12 knots which allowed the
boards to be tested in marginal
planning conditions. Here is where
the development of the boards
shone through with all of the
boards easily getting onto the
plane upwind and downwind and
showing excellent sailing
characteristics
Testing was based around a
figure-of-eight slalom course with
boards being started at different
intervals to avoid damage due to
keenness at mark roundings. Slalom
has never been tried before at the
Olympics and the Evaluation Panel
has recommended its inclusion into
the format for Windsurfing to try
to increase the spectator appeal
of the sport and to try to
modernise the format. All of the
sailors welcomed this idea and
relished the chance to show off
some excellent carve gybing and
reaching skills.
Following on from the slalom,
another couple of informal races
were held. As at Hayling Island,
the shifty conditions did not
accurately show the boards
potential and results were more
based on tactical sailing then
speed. However, as the wind
continued to drop to 8 knots at
times, the Evaluation panel were
pleased to notice that all of the
boards continued to perform well
and were planing most of the time
with just a few pumps of the sails.
For Saturday night, ISAF hosted a
dinner for all of the sailors and
manufacturers to thank all for
attending and for putting so much
effort into the trials for
evaluating new equipment for 2008.
With the forecast of a building
breeze for Sunday, and still
wishing to concentrate on light
wind sailing, the Evaluation Panel
set a start time of 0930. With the
wind already blowing around 8-10
knots the sailors had to go to the
very top of the reservoir to find
sheltered conditions and a gusty
5-8 knot breeze. Here further
fleet testing was carried out with
the Evaluation panel observing all
of the performances of the boards.
Even in these winds, the boards
were easy to rail and get onto the
plane in the gusts and sailed
upwind at good angles and speed.
Downwind the sailors would have to
pump a little to get the board
going but then would be able to
track downwind nicely with good
speed, with the board often
popping onto the plane again.
By 1300, the Evaluation Panel
decided that they had enough
information and had seen the
boards over an adequate variation
of conditions to make their
conclusions.
All of the sailors were gathered
for a final de-brief with the
Evaluation panel to discuss each
of the boards and to talk about
the performances seen both at
Queen Mary and Hayling Island.
From this, many subtle changes
were recommended to each of the
designs, which ISAF will pass on
to the manufacturers and the pros
and cons were summarised amongst
the sailors.
The Evaluation panel now have the
task of sorting through all of the
information and trying to select
the best possible overall package
to recommend to the ISAF Council
in November. The official report
on the trials from the Evaluation
panel will be available within
three weeks and posted on the ISAF
website.
ISAF would like to thank all of
the staff at Hayling Island
Sailing Club and Queen Marys
Sailing Club as well as all of the
sailors, manufacturers and
visitors who gave up their time to
make the trials a success. |
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