Major difference in batten placing |
“It is a lot different to my current main. The draft is further back, and the sail is more sensitive. It was only 4-6 knots, so it was easy to over sheet the sail and make it too flat, but I think the top 3 battens were to stiff.
The sail was very responsive once I found the “sweet spot”, and only had to make minor sheeting adjustments to keep optimum speed.
We won all three races on yardstick over the f18’s, winning one race by over 1 leg.
Very interested in how it would handle 15+ knots.”
Brett started to play with the battens, and his choice was very stiff carbon rods for the Worlds.
Just about a month before the Worlds, Gavin Colby the current Hobie 16 World Champion came to me that he had downwind speed problems and he need a good kite. He ended up on the new 1D kite and he changed the jib too.
On the practice race day, I got the info from the great friend and partner Roland Gaebler, that Brett has a really impressive speed.
Brett’s comments on the new main:
“Very flat but we sail with no cunningham and as long as we do not oversheet we are fast in flat water and light winds. Our speed was really pretty good, we were leading most of the race but lost out protecting the right on the last downwind although tthe final winner went even more right and passed us all.!!”
We had an interesting week during the regatta, from 1-3kts up to 20+. It is nice to see that our sail worked really well and in the hands of real pros and in different conditions.
Now about the results. In open, Gavin Colby and Billy Leonard ended up at 2nd while Brett and Estele 3rd and they got to be the mixed World Champions. I am really happy and satisfied with these results and huge congratulates to the guys and to the girl 🙂
This regatta was very important to us. When we started our brand last February, we made a plan to finish as high as possible on big regattas. In 2015 the 2nd place on the F16 Europeans was really fine which was followed by 4th place on the Tornado Worlds. We saw that we have the opportunity to go higher so started to focus and develop. We knew that, so it was the proof too.
The Tornado class is very important to us as well. Not only, because we sail this boat, but it was the one of the most important classes for Giorgio and Pablo.
Gav and Billy downwind |
Brett and Estele ripping downwind |
More pictures are here in our GALLERY