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AMERICAN WINDSURFER MAGAZINE
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THE LOFT
Monty Spindler, who is The Loft, should know how to rock ‘n’ roll. He was born in Philly in the ‘50s and raised in the outskirts of Motown in the ‘60s. But his real music was the wind. At the University of Maryland he found the Chesapeake Bay, and was an All-American dingy racer. When he got bored with boats he switched to windsurfers looking for speed, and impatiently took the lead in the search when he began designing sails in ‘81. He polished his craft in four years at Neil Pryde, and then scored a bunch of World Cup victories as head designer for ART, where his sails also set three world speed records.
After leaving ART in ‘97 he turned his creativity in another direction, investing more than a year in the renovation of a 400-year-old building in Tarifa, Spain, his current home, a project he describes as “architecturally, politically and logistically challenging.” He met his striking new Italian bride, whose name is as long as she is high, the very petite Maria Sabrina Victoria Roberta (otherwise known as Roby) on a beach in Spain; and began The Loft in July of ‘98 in the empty dining room of what was once a hotel in Casa do Porro near the dune at the west end of the beach in Tarifa, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea. Casa do Porro has two bars, two bakeries, one market and two windsurfing shops, counting The Loft.
You’ve never heard of The Loft sails before, unless you followed the Maui test on www.americanwindsurfer.com. The sails in our test were pretty much final prototypes, with a few things to be changed, such as placement of different thicknesses of X-ply. Spindler was present and most welcome during much of the test to inform and tune (and cook a lively Italian dinner with Roby one evening), and we’re pleased that he also struck a deal for a U.S. distributor, Randy Johnson of The House in Minneapolis. Based on the outstanding reception of the sails by our guest testers, we think they’ll both do well.
At least we hope so, because these sails deserve to be discovered. Testers were dazzled by their comfort, range and stability, while giving up nothing in power. “I really like The Loft sails,” commented Tony Cicale, the ace Indy car engineer who was one of our most technical, aware and efficient testers. “I couldn’t imagine a nicer feeling sail. Good pumping power, great stability, great balance.”
This was a fairly representative opinion. The Loft sails appear to be another solid step toward making windsurfing easier. Which is no accident.
“I would like to simplify sailing,” said Spindler when we asked his overall objective. And what would he like The Loft sails to be known for? “Good value. Progressive, high-performance windsurfing does not have to be expensive. The big guys have big marketing departments and big teams which require financing, and they sometimes create sails which are expensive to produce, just for the ‘look.’ To me, function is more beautiful than fashion. I prefer sails that are efficient, both in how they work and how they’re put together. I build without undue complication.
“I don’t indulge in applications for optical effect,” he continued. “If you apply a lot of seams or panels so the sail looks good to your sponsored riders, you add unnecessary weight and compromise integrity. I like integration. For example, take the panels that approach the corners overlap as they extend to the corner. This technique eliminates a few layers that would otherwise have to be placed in order to get the necessary strength.
“I also believe in ‘trim:’ sails which are easily tuned to suit different sailing styles as well as conditions. For example, you can tune the Wave Lip for top onshore character or uncompromised sideshore performance.”
Spindler’s design convictions embrace progressive shaping. He defines it simply. “Technically, a progressive design anticipates the sailing condition so that the optimum shape is kept constant. The design is progressive if it slides into shape, not out of it.” In other words, a progressive sail is the one that rigs ugly but becomes beautiful when filled with wind on the water. Full and steady.
“Progressive designs are the ones that best imitate the wings of birds,” he continued. “They breathe. The sail profile is oriented forward, and full, powerful, lower sections flatter the supple tip and open up to it. The rig works when there is harmony in these parts, and they mimic a natural wing. But accomplishing this is not so easy because so many elements must be right.
“I might add that none of the fixed wing or semi-rigid wing attempts in windsurfing have ever shown promise. There were more than a few, and rigidity doesn´t work, at least not for windsurfing as we know it.”
The Loft sails employ the latest thinking of reduced mast length and larger heads. Many sailmakers are moving in that direction. The tip of the sail is the territory where the most visible exploring is being done now, the spot where individual designs can be found. The Loft’s contribution to this scientific creativity is called Sensitip.
“The tip has not been given the attention it deserves,” says Spindler. “The Sensitip design is probably patentable, as I have never seen anything quite like it. It came to me on the drive up to Italy to be married. It’s the simplest and lightest tip system available.
“Foil experts agree that the tip is where stall occurs first, so if the tip works, usually the foil will also. The Sensitip supports the sail’s tip with light tension. It’s a six millimeter fiberglass rod, about 75 centimeters [30 inches] long depending on sail size, mounted into a specially shaped pocket. The downhaul tension and head/pocket design create the Sensitip effect, stretching out and up like a bird might extend its long slim tip feathers to feel the wind and its flight. It seems that other tip systems also try to do this, but by using either dead straight head battens or rigid tubes mounted onto molded parts with fixed angles and stiff tip effects. But the Sensitip is more natural. Nature does not make wings with stiff tips.”
Although the Sensitip might be a significant design innovation, Spindler doesn’t claim that it makes a major overall improvement in the performance of the sail; mostly, he says, it improves pumping onto a plane. “The initiation of planing is a critical moment, when the flow over the sail is trying to stay attached and give you power,” he says. “If the tip is soft enough to keep the flow attached as the sailor goes through rythmical pumps, then he can get onto a plane without having to wait for a puff.”
The Loft sails are made in China, but the prototypes and custom sails are made in the Tarifa loft. Spindler designs by hand rather than computer, partly because he hasn’t yet found software that’s flexible enough, and partly because he simply likes the hands-on approach, both literally and figuratively. “It’s important for me to stay in close contact with my work,” he said. “Absolutely in touch. I cut it, sew it and use it with my own hands. Windsurfing, designing, building, testing, modifying, windsurfing. Tarifa works well as an R&D location because it’s so windy. I always test with a partner, and we work to minimize variables between the rigs. Wave R&D is with Christophe Ferarretto, who’s really into waves and freestyle; he won a PBA spaña expression session here last summer. For freeride I work with Franck Thevenet, who is a shaper, and as director of a local windsurfing school he has direct contact with consumers. I like working with Christophe and Franck, because they’re dedicated to expanding the envelope of their specialty. We’re totally into developing high performance windsurfing designs.”
There are five sails in The Loft line, three of which are for racing. We tested common sizes of the Wave Lip and O2 Freeride—named after oxygen because it breathes, says Spindler. Although if we correctly understand what he means when he says it breathes, it might better be named the Lung. Hardly as poetic as the flight of a bird, however.
WAVE LIP 4.5
SCORE: (11 ratings)
Speed 3.63 Power 3.73 Stability 3.91 Range 3.45 Waterstart 4.36 Overall 3.82
COMMENTS:
“Too powerful for me,” said Nancy Johnson, on a day when she sailed the Simmer 4.2 Reef and Windwing 4.2 Catalyst comfortably.
“Nice stability, range, light feel,” said another woman, who sailed the 5.0 Tushingham Storm and 5.4 Gaastra Grind on the same day she tried the Wave Lip. She raised the score the second time she sailed it, and liked it so much she stuck with it all day, through three boards. “Reliable all around,” she added.
“A soft sail. Not very impressed by the overall feel. A very lean entry,” said our dealer who generally sailed against the tide of opinion, giving the sail 2’s in Power, Stability and Range.
WAVE LIP 5.0
SCORE: (8 ratings)
Speed 4.38 Power 4.5 Stability 4.25 Range 3.75 Waterstart 4.38 Overall 4.25
COMMENTS:
“Friendly, easy to handle, well balanced, powerful when needed. Kept me going while limping in for bigger gear.” Unfortunately, there were no comments to explain why it was scored so much faster and powerful than the 4.5. Because Monty Spindler was at the test site almost every day, it’s fair to assume that tuning wasn’t a factor.
STAFF: Andy Gurtner gave it straight 4’s with a 3 in Range
O2 FREERIDE CONCEPT 5.9
Red alert! Red alert! This sail was rigged on a 430/25 Fiberspar Reflex 6000 mast, the latest, lightest, most responsive, most expensive ($599) mast Fiberspar makes. Spindler rigged the sail himself, and informed us about the mast, and we felt it was acceptable under the “prototype” circumstances, with an asterisk over the score. (There was another Reflex 6000 on the Neil Pryde 5.4 SuperNova.)
If you believe Nevin Sayre of Fiberspar, on some sails the mast makes an amazing difference—he said it gave the 5.4 SuperNova the planing power of a 7.0 (which would revolutionize windsurfing, assuming everyone had 600 bucks to spend on a mast). Curiously, he rated the 5.9 Loft lower than our guest testers’ average in all categories, including a mere 3 in Power.
So we did a blind test using two Pryde 5.0 NR sails with the RRD 266, and Tony Cicale as our sailor. The mast markings were covered with tape, and one sail was rigged on the recommended Fiberspar Tidal Wave mast, the other on the Reflex 6000. Tony said the Reflex 6000 made the sail easier to pump and thus got the board on a plane faster in marginal wind, and its increased responsiveness lessened the effort required to maneuver the rig. But he was reserved in quantifying how much easier and faster. Was it clear to him which mast he was using during the test? “I was 65 to 70 percent sure the Reflex 6000 was better when easily powered, and 80 to 85 percent sure it was better when lightly powered,” he concluded.
The 5.9 O2 was the highest overall rated sail in the test, among those with more than five ratings. How much this high-end mast improved the score of the sail can be your own conclusion.
And if in combing the stats you wonder how the sail can be so light while containing so much X-ply, the answer lies not only in Spindler’s approach of no-frills plus integration, but that much of the X-ply is 4 mil, with 5 and 6 mil used in the highly stressed areas.
SCORE: (12 ratings)
Speed 4.33 Power 4.25 Stability 4.42 Range 4.42 Waterstart 4.17 OverallL 4.32
COMMENTS:
“Well balanced, stable, great range, easy to depower, nice soft feel.”
“It feels very heavy,” said a sailor who gave it straight 3’s with a 4 in Waterstart. Given the comment, the higher mark for Waterstart is curious. And on the scales, it’s actually quite light.
Again, Nancy Johnson found the Loft very powerful. She gave it two 4’s and two 5’s, but only a 3 in Range because, “It just felt like it would not give.” Again, curious,
given the mast.
“I couldn’t believe the range and control of the Loft 5.9,” said a tester whose personal level of range and control needed some help. “In overpowered conditions I still felt very comfortable.” This is another case where the most significant comment might be coming from a lesser-skilled sailor, because of those lesser skills.
“I love this sail!” said Randy Johnson. So much that later that week he became the new U.S. distributor for it.
“A small amount of outhaul can have a dramatic impact on the power.” This comment supports Spindler’s intent to provide broad flexibility through tuning.
O2 FREERIDE CONCEPT 6.6
SCORE: (4 ratings)
Speed 4.75 Power 4.75 Stability 4.75 Range 4.75 Waterstart 4.75 Overall 4.75
COMMENTS:
We hate when this happens. With only four ratings, the sky-high score can’t be considered as reliable or valid as others. Two of the four testers gave this sail straight 5’s, and one commented “very balanced,” but that’s all the input we got. It sure looks as if this is some sail, though.
Meanwhile, on the staff side, Andy Gurtner was not so impressed, giving it straight 3’s with a 4 in Speed. Go figure. No comments from him, either (he was in Europe and out of touch when this was written).
Changes in the testing procedure are planned for next year, which should prevent such small black holes of information.
“Hard to rig. Same batten tensioners as Windwing: sharp protuding corners, with no protection against scuffing on ground. Inaccessible head adjuster, otherwise attention to detail and build is very good. Single grommet, but sail comes with pulley block.”
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