FOOTNOTES ON RATINGS by Sam Moses

The ratings categories were determined by committee. Early in the test we saw the need to refine them, but it was already too late if consistency were to be maintained.

With the Boards, it was recognized that the sail contributes at least as much to upwind performance (not to mention such small details as the fin, the sail’s state of tune, the mast track position, etc.), but it was unreasonable to expect a guest tester to be able to isolate the root of upwind performance. Because it’s most readily felt in the “board,” that’s where the category went.

Planing is defined as quickness to plane.

Speed is defined mostly as top speed, although it was recognized that top speed was largely unattainable because the reach to the wave break wasn’t long enough. So the line where acceleration (Power) ended and Speed began remained undefined. But most testers recognized it when they reached it.

Handling is defined as how well a board carves. Testers were asked to cut S curves along a reach, to judge Handling. Think of it as maneuverability, more than turning.

At first we asked testers to separate their Jibe ratings into Entry and Exit, but we realized that they were actually rating turning ability and quickness to plane, again, presuming most intermediate jibes didn’t maintain a full plane. Rating the total Jibe experience seemed a more useful approach, a case where less precision equals more. So later testers rated just Jibe, and we averaged the earlier dual ratings to get one number for Jibe.

We didn’t have a category for Ride, meaning how smoothly the board sails in rough water, and we should have. We also should have had a separate category for wave boards, to rate wave maneuverability. Next time.

With the Sails, Speed is again defined as top speed. Same deal about determining where top is.

Power is defined as acceleration after the board is on a plane.

Stability is quite broad, the most inclusive category. It includes handling and balance, which in hindsight we realize should have been separate categories.

Most of the time, Range is only half a category. Sailors often sailed
underpowered or overpowered, but rarely both, and they scored Range based on how well the sail performed in that one direction. Better categories would be Range Over and Range Under. Of course, that can’t be fairly determined without the time and patience to re-tune. That Great Bugaboo.

Waterstart doesn’t have a whole lot of meaning, especially with the smaller sails, and contributes too heavily to the Overall rating, jacking it up in every case. All sails waterstart well nowadays. When you’re fully powered, there isn’t a lot of difference in the ease with which any 4.5-meter sail waterstarts, and when you’re not, the difference is in your own finesse. Bigger sails and cammed sails are obviously more difficult. We asked testers to factor in relativity, so a 9.0-meter cambered race sail could conceivably earn a 5 in Waterstart (as wave boards sometimes earned 5’s in Speed), but that request was unrealistic, in this case