Tenerife PWA World Cup

The sailors remained on hold for the second day in a row in Tenerife as the light winds continued as expected. Throughout the day there was a bit of a swell running so several sailors took the opportunity to either go for a surf or SUP.

Old Guard versus the Next Generation 

John Skye (RRD / RRD Sails), a veteran on the PWA World Tour will take on 14-year-old Marino Gil (Goya Windsurfing) in the opening round of the Men’s Single Elimination had this to say: “I think I’d finished uni and started competing on the tour before he was even born! In fact I’ve just spoken with Marino’s father  and he was born in August 2002 - at which point I was currently ranked 2nd behind Ricardo [Campello] in the freestyle.”

How do you feel about competing against Marino? 

Nervous! Haha, he’s a good sailor already and it’s obvious that he has a bright future and bags of potential.

Skye will also be competing on the compact quiver he has been developing - what’s your setup for here?

I’ve got my full set up so 5.3m, 4.6m and 4.0m.

Do you think it has any disadvantages or advantages compared to normal?

They've got a double eyelet clew to give them a more tuneable range. So by changing position it feels like I’m changing from the 5.3-5.1m for example.

One of the advantages is that you have a more refined quiver, so I’ve got less stress trying to pick the perfect sail size, the only disadvantage of that is that I might not be on exactly the right sail size, but that’s one of the main reasons I want to compete on them so I can see what the limits are and then take it forward from there. I’ll be using a Pro mast 100% carbon and HD 80% and full carbon 2 piece boom. 

What’s the deal with the compact quiver?

You can purchase the backpack with complete mast, boom, extension and then buy the sails you want - 

You can buy the Pro, which features a 100% carbon mast or you can opt for the slightly cheaper HD 80% option. In the backpack you can fit 3 sails in the backpack and we currently offer 4 sizes- 5.3m, 4.6m, 4.0m and 3.5m. So I opt to travel with the 5.3m, 4.6m and 4.0m, but if you are lighter you’d probably want to opt for 4.6m, 4.0m and the 3.5m.

The mast is one size 340cm and it comes with a 60cm extension, so you can rig the 2 big sails rig 5.3m and 4.6m, and then the others set at 340cm - so it’s a one mast fits all. We’ve also tried to make the mast curve the same as a normal mast.

The only disadvantage I can think of is that the mast weighs 300 grams more… but that’s just physical weight - on the water you can’t feel the difference. 

Thanks, John. Good luck for the contest.

The forecast for tomorrow looks slightly better with light to moderate northeasterly winds while a south swell is expected to kick in throughout the morning, which may offer the opportunity to compete in light airs, while Wednesday and Thursday continue to look promising. The sailors will meet again tomorrow morning at 10am with the action commencing from 10:30am (GMT+1) onwards - if conditions allow.

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