E-mail to all sail manufacturers
Dear sail manufacturers,
We are attempting to gather information for the coming Formula Class AGM in September.
What is your opinion about the proposed maximum sail size restriction for 2003 (see attachment)
This is very important, your opinion will be presented at the AGM to aid in making the final votes.
Look forward to your comments.
Regards,
Krzysztof Jaszczynski
IFWCA Honorary Secretary
08.08.2002
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Answers:
Neil Pryde
Dear IFWCA.
Following your message August 08.
Please note Neil Pryde position concerning the Formula Sail maximum size for 2003 :
12.5 M2 as per 2002 rules.
We think we need to be consistent in the rules and not making changes every year.
Considering this position on sail size , we are also supporting the original concept of the Formula Class with 3 sails as maximum number of sails to be stamped per event.
Best regards.
Michel Quistinic
Neil Pryde
Windsurfing Div Manager.
Naish
These changes sound great to me…
Thank you very much,
Sincerely,
Robby Naish
Yes Sails
Dear Krzysztof,
I am following all the discussions about the sail size restrictions. I am totally in favour of the 11,0 2 sails 2 fins limit. It will help the sport, and potentially new racers will be less intimidated. It will also be easier to sell the used gear, because it’s difficult to sell a 2nd hand 12,5, but there are alot of amateurs looking for used 11,0 for their lightwind sailing. I also think that in short time development will bring 11,0 sails that perform better in lightwind than actual 12,5. 12,5 sails don’t plane earlier than 11,0 as many people might think. Already the main difference is only downwind and if everybody is on the same size nothing will change in races.
What is really important now is to keep these rules for a few years. If we continue changing every year we don’t have credibility and people will not follow. If these rules stay for 3 or 4 years a real development will start on the equipment (example Formula one car racing, they had more and more restrictions, but the cars perform better and better even without slick tires and so on) and the market for 2nd hand equipment will work. Look at the boards, if this year a young racer compete with a Starboard 175 of last year, he could be fully competitive, we cannot say the same with the sails, because last year we had no 12,5, and next year probably the 12,5 will not be allowed anymore.
So yes to the new proposition 1 board 1005 max width, 2 fins max 700 deep, 2 sails max 11,0 or 10,0 for women and juniors, but don’t change for at least 2 or 3 years. Let the national associations the freedom to allow bigger sails in local races so to allow a market for old 12,5 sails.
Next necessary step is to work on a control system to enforce the rules. Before making too many rules it is also necessary to have a good and simple system to enforce them, otherwhise it’s better to not make that rule. Until now I haven’t seen it and I have seen too many top racers using prototypes from “last year” because the rule allowed it. Also the sail registering
system was a joke, I think I am one of the few who registered the sails and sent all the measurements which cost me alot of work.
I dont’ even want to comment the fact that we (sailmakers) have to wait until November to know what we have to put in production. I love the sport and FW, and accept this fact if it will not repeat in future.
I hope my comments will be heplful.
Best regards
Peter Munzlinger
YES SAILS
Tushingham
Dear Krzysztof,
Thank you for your mail.
We at Tushingham Sails support the proposals outlined in the attachment 100%
This year in the UK we have seen a decline in Formula windsurfing. This was caused by the expense and the fact that the sailors do not like using the large sails. Reducing the maximum sail size to 11.0m for the men also means that they do not have to buy a special mast and boom so the overall reduction of cost is big.
Introducing these restrictions is the only chance the Formula class has of becoming popular.
Best regards
Roger Tushingham
Challenger Sails
Dear Krzysztof,
we are thinking the new idea of max.11sqm. for men and 10sqm. for women and juniors is OK.
Kind Regards
Claudio Badiali.
Challenger Sails
Hot Sails Maui
All points agreed, except sail size reduction for Men. This will eliminate all large men from Formula Racing, and may require a higher wind
minimums. This will kill the advances made in formula, and take the racing in the
wrong direction- either to higher wind, or eliminating a large portion of sailors from being competitive.
Aloha,
Jeffrey Henderson
Director & Founder
Hot Sails Maui
The Loft
Hello Krzysztof,
Thanks for your message. I am all for the simplicity of the new proposal limiting the sail sizes and fins, lets keep it simple!,
Saludos,
Monty Spindler,
The Loft
Mistral & North Sails
Dear Krzysztof,
Thanks a lot for your mail.
Our opinion is that 12.5 is simply KILLING Formula as it’s simply too big for national riders (as they do not have the fitness degree as pure professionals). You can easily realize this looking at the entry fields – there used to be approx. 150 starters per event in Germany 2 years ago – now they are down to 50 starters!! And even for international pros it’s asking for too much. You can ask everybody (Micah, Sam, Phil, Woycek) – they all started to get back
problems (most of them first time in their life) when they started sailing on 12.5s.
And not to mention growing kids – if I would have a kid I would not allow him/her to Formula race – kids will permanently damage their back!!!
So my proposal would be:
1. max. 11.0 for men
2. max. 9.0 for women
3. max. 7.5 for kids
Best regards and good luck
Raoul Joa
Brand Manager Division Mistral & North Sails
Gaastra
Gaastra would support the current rule without any changes.
Regards,
Phil McGain.
Naish Sails Hawaii
In our opinion, Formula Windsurfing needs to be limited as you suggest. I believe a major reason why formula windsurfing participation continues to grow is because its roots are in a one-design approach. The idea is to have fair affordable racing anywhere in the world. Making the sport more affordable, and more accessible is surely the answer to getting more people stoked on windsurfing.
It seems that two sails with a maximum of 11 meters is an appropriate decision.
Dan Kaseler
Sail Designer
Naish Sails Hawaii
Arrows
I only agree to what’s proposed in the attachment. To keep our sport interesting and to enable to have competitions like FW the material has to be useable for hobby racers and end consumers. If the industry is not able to sell the FW-products it want be possible to finance the development. the same for the racers if they can’t sell their used equipment, they want be able to finance new material, travel expenses, competitions, …
An important point is that all members of the industry and windsurfing organizations agree to these rules, to make sure that nobody comes up with strange ideas, which we are forced to follow.
Another thing is to have the material ready for the FW season 2003 the industry started to develop already in spring 2002. that is a lot of wasted time and money if all the rules get changed again in September.
Looking forward to have FW rules which will help to grow our sport again and to have fun while sailing.
Best regards
Gerald Rossbach
Product Manager Arrows
Boards & More GmbH
Aerotechsails
We at Aerotechsails believe strongly that the succes of Formula Windsurfing worldwide is thanks to the rules that were set in the past. We do not believe that these rules should be changed, because this will effect FW worldwide in a negative way.
We see a clear difference in planning ability between 12.5m² and 11 m², and like most other manufacturers, we use the same masts and booms on our 12.5m² and 11m². Our 12.5 will be at an almost identical price as the 11 and visualy, if not marked on the sail, a recreational surfer or even pro would have it very hard to see the difference. The difference in weight is due too the use of same mast and boom minimal.
We agree that in some countries there has been a decline in participants for FW competitions, on the other hand, in some countries there was an increase.
The decline in some countries was not caused by the current rules, but by the lack of rules a couple of years ago and general deinterest in the windsurfing sport.
We at Aerotech support strongly the current 1/3/3 12.5 men 11 women rules and hope that this voting is not taking too much the attention from the real problems in the windsurfing sport.
A clear vision of the FWCA on the future of FW racing on short/mid and long term and how the FWCA will promote the windsurfing sport would be appreciated much. The first thing to do now is to freeze the current rules for at least 2 years and start thinking about the future of FW with a broader view.
Raf & Koen Sonck
Aerotechsails
