"David Ezzy Explains the 2007 SE Sails"
The new 2007 Wave SE sails have radically more shape forward than previous sails.
I am referring mainly to the two battens directly above the boom. Battens #3 and
#4 have a very deep draft right behind the mast. Having this extreme shape forward
gives the sails a very stable, yet powerful feeling.
The critical design feature is that the draft does not extend
back.
The endobatten allows us to really wind up the batten tension and still keep the
sail symmetrical and easy to flip. A traditional batten pocket would not work
with my new profile.
The draft in the middle battens is very rigid, almost like having a cam, but
the sail still has a soft feeling and flips easily. The fact that the batten is
so locked makes the sails very stable.
New Rigging Concept for 2007:
The required downhaul tension is much less on the new ’07 sails. In fact,
if you over-downhaul you kill the nice feeling. The reason is that if you downhaul
too much, you remove a lot of the forward draft that is built into the sail.
The new sails have a huge outhaul range. It can be as little as 2.5 cm and
up to 6.5cm. The outhaul is the main way to flatten the sail. In strong winds
you use a lot of outhaul. Having a lot of positive outhaul is a good thing. It
equates to how much range a sail has. Many sails on the market have one outhaul
setting that varies only by on about a cm either way for light wind and heavy
wind. This means these sails will have less wind range.
Our sail on the other hand can be set totally bagged out, or super flat. Both
settings feel great.
Click here to view the video of David Ezzy rigging
the SE Wave
Other Refinements:
We have new sleeve cloth this year for the wave sail. This cloth has surpassed
my expectations. We now have much stronger yarns in the warp and weft, plus an
extra weft yarn that stops the tears from traveling up the sleeve. While testing
the sleeve cloth, two of my riders broke masts at Hookipa. Neither of them tore
the sleeve. But what was most surprising is that both of the guys sailed their
rigs back to the beach with fully broken masts and the mast sleeve material held
together and did not tear. In my 30 years of windsurfing I have never seen this
happen, let alone twice!
Also new this year is the tack pulley. I have had many people request a
pulley over the years and I finally got around to designing one. At first I looked
at just using the same pulley design that Pryde and everyone else uses. After
testing it I realized that it had a design flaw because the pulleys turn in opposite
directions when threaded for a standard base. They need to have dividers to stop
the pulleys from touching. The dividers also stop the rope from jumping a pulley
while rigging.
There are other smaller improvements as well. A new clew patch
better supports loading, a new head patch and extra reinforcement on the foot
of the sails. Also, a new window shape and additional leech stabilizers between
battens #3 and #4.
The 6.5 and 7.0 SE have 6 battens (like last year) but the boom has been shortened
up a bit on both, which gives them nicer handling. These two sizes are called
"Ezzy Wave Free-Ride Edition".
Last but not least, we have greatly enhanced the colors for ’07. All of
the new colors are very noticeable on the water. Feedback has been terrific.
• Designed for flat water, freestyle, side-shore, onshore, any-shore wave
sailing.
• Endobatten construction for a symmetrical profile on both starboard and
port tack.
• Spectra® reinforced XFilm
stops rips dead in their tracks.
• New foot cloth with double the Spectra® yarns, stops harness hook
punctures and nose-ofthe-board tears.
• Vinyl window provides perfect visibility and great durability.
• No monofilm.
• Strong RBS® Epoxy battens.
• Outhaul gauge shows you how much outhaul you need.
• Super-thick mast pad wraps around your universal and flips up for easy
rigging.
• Fits regular diameter masts and skinny masts.
• EVERY sail is rigged and checked before it’s shipped.
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