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Postcards from the Water's Edge: Wednesday, October 6
Sam Moses, American Windsurfer Senior Editor
The Peterson Principle
Tuesday was a challenging day for many of the guest testers. It was gusty and the water was choppy on the inside. The waves were racing in over the reef hot and heavy, although not too high. With all the sails to try, it was easy to end up overpowered and hanging on for dear life. Catapaults and face-plants during jibes in the fast-moving swells were common. Spinouts were so frequent people stopped counting them. Sailors who had never jumped before were finding themselves leaping like motocrossers. By evening the muscles were sore. People were limping and hobbling. Bedtime came early.
But, to a person, they all fell asleep with smiles on their faces.
Especially Jane Parkmann. She's from the San Francisco Bay area, and sails at Coyote Park, Third Avenue and Rio Vista, and likes her boards light and lively. So far she's found a nice connection with the 248 and 258 RRD Wave Boards (but hates the weird Euro-teenager graphics). Her smile came not only from the day's sailing, but from the fact that more boards just arrived. Dave Mel, owner/designer at Sailboards Maui, dropped off his pretty 8-8 and 8-4 wave boards, and North Shore Maui brought three boards, including a new yellow 264 Wave. Jane is hot to try them all tomorrow.
On Monday I spent more than an hour picking the brains of Bruce Peterson, Sailworks' owner and designer, a former World Cup winner and still a winning pro in the Gorge. He gives great interview. I've written about and gotten to know athletes from NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt to the New York Yankees' Cy Young-winning pitcher Ron Guidry, and Bruce is as compelling as any of them. He's passionate about his beliefs, and articulate in expressing them. After the interview, he gave a rigging and tuning clinic to our guest testers. These are the kinds of bonuses they get with the package.
"I'm pretty fiercely independent," he told me. "Which is one reason we' ve set up our own factory in China that makes nothing but Sailworks sails. That way we've got control of both quality and costs right from the get-go. Being a pretty small company, that's the only way we can survive."
Two things came across clearly about his beliefs. The first is that because windsurfing is so inherently technical, anything that can be done to simplify a sailor's choices (and any choice that must be made is a technical problem) is good. That's why there are only three Sailworks models in the line: the Retro recreational sail, the Revo wave sail and the XT race sail.
But he was especially intense in his belief that cambers are not needed in recreational sails, at least not in his. The XTs for racers have cams, but none of the Retros do, running all the way up to 9.5 meters. You can read the well-written Sailworks pamphlet for his full technical explanation
of the dynamics of it all, or check http://www.sailworks.com.
Bruce said there was something that has bugged him about sail tests in the past. Categories. He thinks we should be color blind, so to speak. "I'd like my Retro sails to go up against all recreational sails, whether they're cambered or not,'' he said. "I don't think they should be in a separate class.
"I'll stake my reputation on my belief that cams aren't needed in recreational sails,'' he added, with such conviction that I half expected him to pound his fist on the glass patio tabletop. "Most windsurfing sails are over-engineered for the average user. Most people can't get to the full extent of the performance of the sail, never mind even rigging the sail properly. But on a technical level, if the sail is designed correctly it will perform on par with a cambered sail."
Bruce has the credentials to be a judge, but the jury is comprised of the world's windsurfers, and it's still out. There's more testimony to be given and taken. In the next Postcard from the Water's Edge, Jeff Henderson will be taking the stand (and Bill Hansen of Windwing will also speak out on the subject, after that). Jeff founded Hot Sails Maui in 1985, and remains its owner and head designer. To meet the spectrum of market demands, his 2000 line includes both camless and cambered large sails. As he says, "It's the hottest issue going, and windsurfers are hungry for information."
We'll be giving it to you, here and later in more detail in print, in American Windsurfer Magazine's 2000 Equipment Test on Maui.
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