Inizia l’anno e si definiscono anche gli ultimi dettagli delle nuove “armi” da regata. Oggi è la volta della World Cup Racing della North Sails, la nuova Warp F2010 a svelare i suoi segreti. Gli obiettivi che il sail designer Kai Hopf si prefiggeva, realizzando il nuovo shape della vela, erano essenzialmente due:
1) Aumentare l’accelerazione in partenza in planata ed uscita dalla strambata senza sacrificare nulla in fatto di velocità e stabilità.
2) Ridurre il peso della vela soprattutto nelle misure più grandi.
Ecco come Kai ha raggiunto i suoi obiettivi.

DESIGN REALIZATION WARP F2010
1. Improve acceleration after start and jibing without sacrificing stability or speed
Kai has achieved that by adding more depth to the sail most noticeable in the boom area. In the upper part of the sail (batten #1 to batten #4) Kai has replaced the cross seams with a full luff panel which enables him to control the added profile. The result of these modifications is an extra dragster like acceleration.
Kai also reduced the aspect ratio (especially on the larger sizes) which results in a slightly wider and shorter sail. This longer chord also has a very positive effect on the acceleration.
2. Try to further reduce the weight especially of the bigger sizes
After the success from last year where Kai had reduced the number of battens from 8 to 7 on all sizes up to 8.0, he now went one step further.
Now even the big sizes have 7 battens only. This makes the sail more dynamic and noticeable lighter in the hands. Kai was able to maintain the stability through stiffer battens and improvements in shaping.
In addition Kai has replaced the top 3 batten tensioners with our superlight Mini.Rocket tensioner, one of the lightest tensioners on the market.
All these weight reductions in the top of the sail have a very large impact as it effects the swing weight of the sail. As a result especially the bigger sizes got remarkably lighter making them less physical to sail plus easier to pump.