LeStef said...
wow, I just checked this post today after 6 days and there was lots of controversy...
I was just saying that there is no point of having an old sail that is more powerful and weighs 5 Kg more ! (and not lbs, what are lbs anyway?).
We all are just people who enjoy the sea...
Well, my old-style 6m weighs 2 kg when dry, and it's normally dry. So it starts off being over 2kg lighter than a specialist "lightweight" 6.5 like the NP Helium.
And given that I spend a lot of time using the things, I'm pretty sure that they would not pick up anything like that extra 2+kg when wet. Moreover, an older outline can have less area (and therefore less weight) up high where it exerts more leverage and therefore can affect handling more.
Now, I'm
NOT saying this old-style sail has anything like the top end speed or handling of a modern 6. However, it's definitely got shedloads more light-wind power than a modern 6.
That may not suit everyone, but it does suit some of us for our specialised uses (in this case, a longboard normally sailing in lighter and fluky winds).
I've spoken to a professional in the field of sailing performance prediction and testing. He jokes about the fact that years ago, he was running sail testing sails for a major sailmaker. For fun and interest, they put an original Windsurfer sail in the testing and found that it actually produced much more lift (for area) than any of the modern sails!
All this stuff seems to fit in pretty well with the information produced by the guys who spend millions testing stuff for yacht racing, and with the theorists who were involved with the America's Cup wing and aircraft designs. The basics of aerodynamical physics haven't changed, as far as I know - a deeper more cambered shape still produces more lift but at the expense of higher drag. Check it out at an airliner near you!