TUSHINGHAM

By Martin Trees

Picture an island half way around the world from Maui. It’s called The Isle Of Wight and it sits just south of England, barely into that strip of water separating Britain from France known as the English Channel. On this island there is a man named Ken Black, and here in a self-imposed isolation of sorts (the island is actually populated—mostly by sheep and convicts) he creates dreams. He designs the most popular windsurfing sail ever to exist in the United Kingdom—Tushingham.

A little background is needed here. Roger Tushingham first designed his namesake sails in the early 1970s, but in order to concentrate full time on his Olympic goals he sold the name brand. Later, he bought back what was once his and enlisted the designing talents of Ken Black, who jumped at the chance to design for such a prestigious loft. Previously Black had designed and made his own sails, but by building them himself he found very little time to perfect his designs. Tushingham gave him the opportunity to design full-time, and both have benefited from the alliance.

Dave Hackford, part of the three-man team that makes up Tushingham sails, brought some of next year’s designs here to Maui, and in the early days of the test they are proving very popular. Their distinctive skull-and-crossbones logo once read "Championship sails since 1978," but this well-established brand no longer feels the need to boast.

How is it that one man working alone can produce world class sail designs? When you live on an island as small as the Isle of Wight it takes little time to de-rig and move to another sailing spot, where you can sample completely different sailing conditions. Except in north winds, when it blows from the nearby mainland, the sailing options are tremendous. The Isle Of Wight may be Britain’s own version of Alcatraz, but with his sails being as popular as ever the only danger that designer Ken Black faces is having sheep walk over his kit. Baaaa!