A LIBRA'S NIGHTMARE
by Sam Moses, Senior Editor
I forgot something, at the end of the last Postcard from the Water's Edge. When the saying, "Red sky at night, sailors' delight," was coined, they were talking about boats. Windsurfers hate the things that delight "sailors." Somebody needs to come up with a new saying. "Hurricane clouds by day, windsurfers shout hooray!" Or something like that.
The weekend wind was great, but that red sky on Thursday evening only meant that the wind on Friday sucked. But we were saved by the Neil Pryde guys. Seven or eight of them, including freshly-crowned freestyle world champion Josh Stone and PWA World Cup- winning sail designer Nils Rosenblad (and counting Josh's lovely wife Amy and beautiful baby boy, Harley), came over for Corona and Buffalo wings, and gave a presentation on the patio. Along with the beer bottles and chicken bones, they left behind a stack of valuable information, and they really only scratched the surface.
In a recent Postcard (click on "The Peterson Principle"), I related the Sailworks' marketing philosophy of simplicity: fewer sail choices is good, because it means fewer chances to buy the wrong type of sail-Sailworks or otherwise. The Pryde philosophy couldn't be more different. It grabs the technical nature of the sport by the throat: there's a sail not only for virtually sailing application, but the designs get down to sailors' styles as well. The same is true of Simmer and North Sails with
their wave lines.
With Pryde, the best example is the Signature Series. Three lines of wave sails, for three wavesailing styles. The Core, if your style is loose like Josh Stone. The Zone, if it's loopy and you love bottom turns, like Jason Polakow. The NR, if it's forceful like Bjorn Dunkerbeck. Adding to the options is the Soul, a freestyle sail which works well in waves.
Of course, Rosenblad tried to make it simpler: Core=Maneuverable, Zone=Stable, and NR=Powerful. Or even easier: Core for lightweight sailors, Zone for medium weight, NR for heavy.
What's more, if you really want to get technical, the sail should be compatible with your board. For example, if you have a sail with a certain twist characteristic, you might need a board with a certain rocker line. Of course, if you're sure you already have the board that best suits your style and meets your needs, then you're OK, as long as you know why your shape works for you. Let's have a show of hands: How many think they have a full grasp of that?
Many pros don't even know that. They know when something works for them, but not always why.
In many ways, these sail considerations are no different than those you must make in order to buy the correct board. But the problem is, you need to have the information before you buy. How many windsurfers will miss the story behind the Signature sails? It's on the Pryde website, but, realistically, your dealer is probably the guy who has to inform you what's up. And he needs to have all three lines in stock, to make the correct choice convenient. If you want a Pryde wave sail, and he has a quiver of Zones on his rack, it's natural that he might sell you the available model, regardless of your style or size. And what do you do if you're a big guy who likes maneuverability? And what does the dealer do if you walk in and demand a Zone because you wannabe a looper, when what you really need is an NR to get your butt moving faster?
The Signature Series was introduced last year, and it's been a clear success in terms of sales, indicating the marketing idea was a winner. In Europe, especially, sailors identify with World Cup stars.
But no matter how brilliant each sail may be when properly matched to the sailor, it's got to be a dilemma. Pryde sells the most sails in the industry, which means they have to be reaching the broadest range of ability, which means they're also tapping the lowest level of sailing knowledge. In the end, the correct sale has to get down to the expertise, integrity, care for the customer, and long-term business sense of the dealer.
We have five dealers here this week. Two of them have already pointed out that their problem is not lack of communication with their customers, but usually a lack of technical understanding by those customers, and that customers don't always want to accept their guidance, maybe because they're suspicious of salespeople. And speaking of salespeople, when you say "dealer," for practical purposes that's who you mean. Could it be a windsurfer who's mostly only thinking about getting out on the water that day?
Neil Pryde-and Simmer and North and Gaastra and others-may be risking a backfire with so many lines of sails. So far, with the Signature Series at least, the numbers indicate otherwise. But if you look back to the '80s, there was a boom in high performance, too, before the bust that's generally attributed to sailors' frustration.
Technically, the Pryde approach is exactly right; they're trying to match sailors' abilities to equipment. But it may be too right. Realistically (meaning off the island of Maui), isn't a bewildering number of options inviting trouble? It's preventable if these manufacturers communicate thoroughly with their dealers, and dealers with salespeople, and salespeople with customers, and customers with salespeople. Then, such ambitious and possibly great sails won't just be sold, but sold to the right sailors. Anything less won't help either them or the sport, in the long run.
Later this week I'll be visiting the Pryde Design Centre here on Maui, for a more detailed interview with the very prolific Nils Rosenblad. Keep your eye on this space.
