93
RS:X-
WORDS AND PICS: RYA UNLESS STATED
INTRODUCED INTO THE OLYMPICS IN 2008,
THE RS:X CLASS HAS HELPED SHAPE
WINDSURFING RACING AT AN
INTERNATIONAL AND DOMESTIC LEVEL.
WILL CARSON LOOKS BACK ON A DECADE
AT THE TOP.
A DECADE
AT THE TOP
“This meant a board that could, given the right wind
strength, sail on the fin ‘formula style’ but also meet the
requirement to be able to race in light winds that are so
often encountered. Effectively a new design was required.
For windsurfers, 1984 was a monumental year. With the sport
having grown hugely since its modern-day inception in the late
1940s, it was finally recognised as an Olympic event. “With this in mind it needed a have a daggerboard as well as
a powerful fin so could best be described as a hybrid of long
and short board, wider and shorter than a longboard but
longer and more volume than the course slalom boards of
the day. Trials were held and with the considerable backing
of Neil Pryde (the man and his company), the RS:X was
chosen from a list of offerings.”
The Los Angeles Olympics saw windsurfing make its debut,
with Dutchman Stephan van den Berg winning the first gold
medal. Eight years later the sport was introduced into
women’s competition. With its powerful rig – 8.5m for women and 9.5m for men –
the RS:X was capable of sailing ten knots quicker ‘off the fin’
than the daggerboard, yet still provided compelling racing in
the light breeze.
Like all Olympic sailing events, windsurfing is contested with
identical rigs and boards to put the emphasis on the sailor
not the equipment.
Bryony Shaw at the Beijing
2008 Olympics
However, those classes have changed over time. The original
Olympic windsurfer was the fairly primitive Windglider, which
saw sailors carry the 4kg daggerboard over their shoulder on
downwind legs.
Other classes that have featured include the Lechner Division
II, boasting a 12ft round-bottomed board ideal for light,
upwind sailing, to the iconic Mistral One Design that featured
from 1996 to 2004. However, no class has featured in more
editions of the Olympic Games than the RS:X.
Designed in 2004, the RS:X featured a carbon mast, boom
and fin, and a ‘wide-style’ board that merged modern
windsurf board design with a centreboard.
With competition able to take place in pumping or planing
conditions, the RS:X was duly voted the equipment of choice
for the 2008 Beijing Games.
One who remembers it well is Barrie Edgington, Team GB’s
male windsurfing representative at the 1992 Olympics who
by 2008 was coaching Nick Dempsey, the most successful
Olympic windsurfer of all time.
“ISAF (as it was at the time) was looking for a change of
equipment from the dated Mistral One Design long board, to
better reflect the sport as it is sailed at the time,” said
Edgington, who now coaches the British Sailing Team’s
female windsurfers.
uk
WIND
SURFING