60INTERVIEWBOUKE BECKER
an effort to be the most innovative. But later down the line
their customers will find it has gone too far and things will be
reduced again. In the 90s you had the no-nose shapes;
some shapers had nose widths of 25cm. Recently you had
the square stubbies. There are some good things about the
square stubbies but also a more tapered outline will result in
a loss somewhere. Already in the second year some brands
were moderating things again. So they went too far the first
year. You also see brands going back from four to three fins,
even if slower. With sails you see brands starting to move
away from the compact wave sail designs again. Hence the
yo-yo effect.
But in the marketing of more extreme ‘stuff’ you can point
out the good things and brush away the bad things. A brand
may claim: the flat spot under the front feet helps planing
and acceleration and the tail kick makes you turn. Sounds
good or not? As long as you don´t mention the fact that the
opposite is also the case. The flat spot works against turning
and the tail kick against planing. I like to work with parabolic
curves to get the smoothest flowing rocker line. Science has
figured stuff like this out for us.
I also like to put a bit of shape in the second batten of my
sails. Some have asked if that did not move the centre of
effort up. I said of course but like this you can use a smaller
uk
WIND
SURFING
sail for a given wind strength having even more benefits like
weight reduction and lowering the centre of gravity plus the
centre of effort. Which makes a sail actually lighter for a
given wind strength, which is what you should be looking at
rather than comparing weight for a sail size. Plus a bit of
shape also helps to stabilize the centre of effort when
powered up, thus increasing wind range.