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Research Physicist Vanishes While Windsurfing,
Returns as Sailmaker
by Sam Moses, Senior Editor
The interview with Windwing's Bill Hansen started out slow, because he's such a laconic guy. Sailworks' Bruce Peterson had fired great quotes like fastballs, Hot Sails Maui's Jeff Henderson had revealed a wry, wise and somewhat world-weary outlook, but Bill talked more like a farmer just sittin' on his porch on a summer evening. Pleasant, but nothing much to report. It's part of his nature, maybe because he's Iowa-born.
But after nearly an hour of this, suddenly I couldn't take notes fast enough.
When I chose to interview these three as a sequential trio, it wasn't because of the potential for a catchy tag: "Peterson, Henderson and Hansen: Not a Scandinavian Law Firm." I wasn't aware of how much they had in common, professionally. They all started their businesses in the '80s and have weathered boom and bust times; they were designers before they were businessmen (and they remain designers); they made their reputations on high performance; they made sails in their own lofts until it no longer became economically feasible; they have very high standards and are committed more to their beliefs than they are to making big money (which is one definition of integrity); they remain relatively small, with 5000 sails making a good year; and they all face the industrial threat of having to compete with large corporations that could afford to lose money in the short term in order to drive them out of business.
They're also all great sailors, representing different styles. Which might have something to do with the difference that interests us here, for American Windsurfer's 2000 Board and Sail Test: their approach to sail design, specifically regarding cambers in their recreational sails.
Peterson is a power sailor, a pro who can win at slalom and course racing on a world-class level. Henderson is a wave sailor who sails almost daily--as much as anyone on Maui, he believes. Hansen describes himself as a middle-aged guy of average athletic ability who wants to make it easy on himself-especially when he stays out for three or four or five or six hours at a time.
Peterson believes in no-cam recreational sails. Henderson believes in both, for marketing viability. Hansen also believes in both, but breaks down the option into either, by making convertible sails that work with or without cams.
Cambers aside, Windwing sails have always been known for their durability. In '99 Hansen introduced what he calls the Decoupled Truncated Tip-basically, the leech is higher than the mast, to gain both the mechanical advantages of a shorter mast and the aerodynamic advantages of a longer trailing edge. I asked him if he invented D2T, as he calls it. He wasn't sure, and he didn't care. What's the definition of invent? At what level of evolution is it considered an idea?
"There aren't any new ideas," he replied. "The human race is so diverse, somebody somewhere has always thought of something before you. So who did it first doesn't really matter. If it's a good idea, it will prevail."
Fairly philosophical stuff, for a farmer sitting on his porch-which in this case happened to be lawn chairs on the edge of the storm-carved bluff over the sandy launch, with the lapping waves singing backup for his ideas.
But maybe the philosophy of invention is in his chemistry. He was a research physicist before he quit to found Windwing in 1982, which was then located in Berkeley, now in Hood River. For the love of sailing, he abandoned the career he was trained for.
But what about cambers? In Hansen's mind, there's no question that a sail is more stable and powerful with them. He doesn't believe their complications are as problematic to the recreational sailor as Peterson does, but he does recognize that they are more difficult to handle in some situations-jibing, in particular-than camless sails. He also thinks a sailor shouldn't have to buy two sails to get the best of both worlds-and also that different sailors in the same family should be able to use one quiver. Finally, and maybe most simply, the types of cambers he was already using in his sails lent themselves to easy removal and insertion in the sleeve.
"Mechanically, we were able to do that, so why not offer the option?" he said. "If we'd had to design a whole new camber system, we'd probably have two sails, like everybody else.
"The goal of every good sail designer is to put himself out of business," he continued. "The perfect sail would work in no wind and work in a hurricane. That's all I'm trying to work toward, with convertibles and the truncated tip."
In a word, range. A second word: stability.
It's nearly 2:00pm, the wind has picked up, and sailors are streaming out onto the water. Hansen gazes seaward, and a look of rapture rolls over his face like the waves rolling over the reef. "To me, what we do is so cool and so unique, there will always be some sort of windsurfing," he says. "Cave men used to look at the water and dream about gliding over it. It's even a biblical thing: walking on water.
"Every time I get on that board, I'm like a little kid. Cares go away, business worries go away. Even though I'm a sail designer, that's not what I'm thinking about out there. To me, sailing is simply neat.''
In the next Postcard from the Water's Edge, we'll do some wave sailing.
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