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Throughout the month of July, Team Pryde stars Bjorn Dunkerbeck, Antoine Albeau, and Anders Brignal will be joined in Gran Canaria by Robby Naish in an historic attempt to break the World Speed Sailing Record, which currently stands at 46.52 knots. Speedseeker is the codename for the sail that has been developed amid tight security at the Neil Pryde Design Centre in Maui, with the sole aim of breaking the existing record and hopefully pushing beyond this to break the elusive 50 knot barrier. Tell us a little about how the idea where we needed to go with Speedseeker project came our later designs. into being. After the Canaries we continued Well the project really began last adapting the RS sails, making year with Bjorn Dunkerbeck’s modifications according to Bjorn’s attempt to break the World Speed requirements and we definitely saw Sailing Record in the Canaries. At an improvement in the performance. that time we hadn’t done any specific But this was still basically a modified development for a speed sail, Bjorn Racing sail rather than a purebred was simply using his RS Racing sails Speed Sailing rig and we knew that and was making a few test runs to we’d have to make a bigger step, Robert Stroj identify where the weak points were really start again from scratch, if we in the sails. wanted to make a serious attempt on the World Record. Earlier this year we met with Neil We made some minor modifications Pryde’s Head of Design, Robert Stroj, right then and there to make the It’s common knowledge that a the man behind the Speedseeker concept. sails a little more “speed friendly”, double surface sail - that’s a sail with In the following interview he tells us adding a little more material to a thicker profile - has certain more about how the Speedseeker enlarge the foot area, as speed sails aerodynamic advantages. So our came into being and about the tend to be used in a more upright first step was to build a fully double innovative new developments behind position than regular slalom sails surface sail. There were two different this remarkable sail. where you are raking the sails back avenues that we chose to explore more. I guess you could say that the with this. Firstly, Bjorn was in touch Canaries attempts were more of a with some people at one of the fact-finding mission to give us some Universities in Barcelona, and they’d come up with kind of a concept very stretch-resistant in one because of this we’ve added more project, which used a light foam that direction, along the direction of the Mini-Battens - there are five in all - was moulded into a wing-like shape Kevlar threads, and it’s a little more and they are a little longer than the and then given a laminated coating. elastic and stretchable in the other regular ones to add more stability direction. and support in the leech area. All this particular prototype really demonstrated was that windsurfing We’ve placed the material in such a Another very unusual aspect of the sails require a high degree of twist, way that the Kevlar threads run Speedseeker sail is that the regular and this foam wing simply couldn’t horizontally, thereby preventing the sail panels and the double surfaced accommodate this, so we soon sail from stretching and getting fuller sleeve have quite a large area of realised that it was almost un- when under load. But the material overlap. Unlike a conventional sail sailable. The theory was good, but can still stretch and flex in a vertical where the panels end where they in practice it just didn’t work. So we direction up the luff curve enabling butt-up against the luff sleeve, the then took the alternative direction the sail to twist freely. So this material Speedseeker has quite a large area and began exploring twin surface was a real breakthrough for us and of overlap (25-30% of the sail area). sails based on more conventional, was the real starting point for the softer, flexible materials. Speedseeker design. What makes this particularly tricky is that the sail panels are designed Our first prototypes were fully double So take us on a quick with shaping in them and the surfaced, but we quickly learned walking tour of the challenge was getting the shaping that these too lacked the necessary Speedseeker in its present to continue smoothly as the panels degree of twist that a windsurfing form, what makes it work? transition underneath the double sail requires. Essentially the two surfaced area of the sail. Fortunately, surfaces of the sail began to fight The first real difference between the the material in the double surface against one another once the sail Speedseeker and the RS Racing is areas stretches in the vertical was in motion and this restricted the the outline. Right away you can see direction and this enables the double natural twist of the sail and began that the Speedseeker has a larger, causing drag. lower foot, to accommodate the more upright speed sailing stance. So where we are today is we have You need to remember that Speed a sail that has about 25-30% double boards are shorter and narrower surface in the leading edge - you than conventional Slalom boards could almost call this an unusually and that speed events are generally oversized luff pocket - and the held in fairly flat water, so it’s really remaining area of the sail is a not a problem to sail in the more conventional single piece which upright position, which improves the forms the “twist-zone”. efficiency of the sails. We’ve found a very special Kevlar If you look at the leech you’ll see it’s reinforced material for the double again a little different to the RS in surfaced leading edge - what’s that there are none of the Batwing special about the material is that it’s concaves between the battens and surface to accurately follow the sail in one direction. The sail can tension that’s created from the main curves formed by the panel shaping. only be rotated by pushing the lower body of the sail. This added tension part of the sail pretty firmly with your helps give us a nice clean, stable, As I mentioned earlier, double foot. leading edge. surfaces don’t really accommodate twist in the sail. So we’ve varied the With speed sailing you tend to be As far as rig parts go, you’ve width of the double surface to using sails that are about two sizes basically stayed with the facilitate twist where it’s needed. So bigger than you’d normally use, and standard X9 mast and boom you’ll see that the double surface is the aim is to get the sails locked into and with conventional appreciably less wide in the head position. What you don’t want are battens too, is that right? area to leave a large, loose “twist the cams rotating back on area” in the top part of the sail and themselves when you make slight Yes, the rig parts and battens are it’s at its widest at the boom, where adjustments, like sheeting out a little. the same as those we use in the RS the panel tension goes furthest back Racing sails. in the sail almost to the leech. Having done all this Another point of interest on the experimental work with the Speedseeker is the profile. I think Speedseeker where you’ve people will be surprised to see how really been pushing the “full” the Speedseeker is, even quite performance and structural high in the sail. The fact is that unlike boundaries of conventional Slalom courses, where you have sails - were there any upwind and downwind legs, Speed lessons that you’ve learned courses are pointed way further that you’ll put into the next downwind and you only travel in the generation of RS Racing one direction. So Speedseeker sails sails? can stay relatively full because we’re not worried about the upwind angle, Yes, to be honest we had no idea we’re only looking for maximum how this new oversized sleeve efficiency. Because of this fullness construction would work out, but up top, both the 2nd and 3rd battens Another issue with the Speedseeker we’ve been pleasantly surprised at in the Speedseeker have Cams, was the oversized, twin surfaced luff how well it’s been working. With the unlike the RS Racing where we only area. Because of the extreme width first real Speedseeker sail we made have Cams from batten 4 it was difficult to maintain tension in it looked really odd when it was downwards. the sleeve area, so we’ve placed an rigged, but after a few minor additional tension strap at the bottom adjustments back at the loft suddenly With little need to gybe and sail back of the sleeve, which straps onto the it turned into this totally kick-ass sail. upwind, the cams on the extension. You basically downhaul Quite honestly I thought we’d be Speedseeker are set to provide the sail like you would do a messing around for a lot longer maximum stability, in particular the conventional sail, but then you do a before we got it to be as good as bottom two cams are loaded with a further, downward adjustment just the RS, but in fact we seem to have lot of pressure, which helps lock the on the sleeve area, to equalise the got it right very early on.

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