sobre la Indy, aquí te paso lo que dice su diseñador Nils. Pero atención porque comparas velas con más de medio metro de diferencia:
This month's Windsurf Magazine features Naish Head Sail Designer Nils Rosenblad and picks his brain about the new Indy line.
Excerpt from Windsurf Magazine:
With the compressed shape style of sail featuring ever more prevently in companies ranges, we thought it high time we caught up with one of the first brands to introduce this concept. Nils Rosenblad, Naish head sail designer, gives us the low down on their new Indy line.
What was the inspiration behind the Indy concept?
The idea was that riders who want to sail in lighter conditions could really benefit from a sail that packed a lot more punch into a smaller outline - planing on a 6.4m is WAY more fun than struggling with an 8m sail when the going gets marginal. When we started working on the design, there was nothing on the market that delivered that kind of performance - everyone was obsessively focusing on over-powered top-end performance, and using larger and larger sails in the same conditions, which makes zero sense for the guy who just wants to go fast and have fun at his home spot.
How would this kind of sail benefit the rider?
There are lots of benefits besides the obvious advantage of early planing - the compact sails make gybing and maneuvers easier, you can rig up to a 7m on your 430 RDM wave mast, they're even easier to fit in your car because the bags are shorter. Plus the huge range means most people can get by with one size for 90% of their slalom sailing, which is great for the wave guy who already has a slalom board and an RDM mast and just wants to go for the occasional burn without a huge investment in new gear.
The compact design characteristic was something that Naish as a brand embraced early on. What was the reasoning behind this?
Originally, the concept came from working with Kauli Seadi, who wanted to improve his rotational moves and tight approach to surfing by making the luff and boom lengths shorter. This also reduced the total rig weight, since you were now using a size smaller mast. Those sails started out REALLY specialized - basically they worked for Kauli - but over time, with an aggressive R&D effort, they evolved into a valid alternative to conventional wave sails, and offered a nice lightweight (especially after we went to 4 battens in 2088) alternative that filled a gap between 'power' and 'down the line' type wavesails. The proof is in the pudding - pretty much every brand out there has a copy product on the market at this point.
We hear a lot about your super lightweight X-166 Ply. Do you use this cloth on the Indy? If so, what are the benefits?
X-166 is a medium-high tech yacht sail material that has X-ply and warp yarns on a lightweight, double-sided mylar laminate. I use the term 'medium-tech' because we use polyester yarns which are both a better match for the polyester film, and are far more UV resistant than most of the exotic fibres. It weighs 40-60% less than the monofilm and heavier scrims typically used in windsurfing sails, and has excellent tear strength and durability characteristics thanks to its high yarn density and flexibility. We use it on ALL Naish premium sails, including the Indy - it delivers light weight, improved performance (especially at the low end), and lasts longer than monofilm.
What other design features does the Indy rely on that are worth mentioning?
The 6 batten/2 cam layout - fewer battens mean less weight and improved low end, since the sail 'inflates' more easily, and having just two cams makes rigging painless while still locking in the shape. This is only possible because of the low aspect ratio, in much the same way that 4 battens is possible on the Boxer.
How many prototypes did you go through to get the point where you were happy with the end product, and how much testing does a concept such as this require?
The Indy was originally introduced as the Boxer Slalom. The sails were really good right out of the box, but we made a flurry of prototypes at the time to fine-tune the various sizes. When we re-introduced the sail as the Indy in 2011, we completely revamped the design, bringing over a bunch of sophisticated 3D shaping that we had been developing on the Grand Prix for a couple of years - this added a lot of top end control and even more speed without compromising the low end.
What do you see as your target audience for the Indy sail?
People who approach slalom sailing from the point of view of going fast and having fun rather than racing. A good analogy would be the difference between lightweight 'naked' motorcycles like the Ducati Monster, and a full-on track-bred racer like a Suzuki GSXR - sure, the latter will be faster around an actual race track, but for day-to-day driving,the naked bike is plenty fast enough, easier to handle, and is still fun in traffic.
Is there anything else that needs to mentioned as far as the Indy is concerned?
Interestingly enough, I would mention the Naish Grand Prix - in the same way that the Indy has benefited from our race sail development, the Grand Prix has benefited from the amazing low-end performance of the Indy. The new Grand Prix has just seven battens, is lower aspect ratio, and has way more acceleration out of the holes than its predecessors. So we actually offer a second, more high-end oriented option for those riders that typically sail in stronger winds.
