The calm before the hurricane


Before the America’s Cup put them in the public eye (‘public’ here being something of a semantic inflation), wings were seen only in the most specialist areas of the sport such as the C-Class cats and the speed record scene. Expensive, suited only to narrow wind ranges and as mooring-unfriendly as it gets, these rigid contraptions made of exotic materials seemed light years away from the famous trickledown effect, through which mere mortals are supposed to ultimately benefit from what happens ‘up there’. But this is all about to change… big names are spending big money in search of a solution to the practical, reefable mainstream wing. Jocelyn Blériot reports


I


t’s a strange combination of tradi- tion, technology and, some might say, aesthetic goofiness. It’s certainly an unusual sight, the classic, elegant lines of a 5.5m racer topped by a rather unexpected inflatable con-


traption whose colour and pointy trailing edges make one think of a crow’s wing. Edouard Kessi’s Inflated Wing Sail (IWS)


is fitted on a telescopic mast, uses miniature fans to maintain its symmetrical airfoil shape and the only control line in sight is a mainsheet – two, actually, since gybing is achieved by rotating the wing in front of the mast, presumably eradicating the very notion of the infamous Chinese manoeuvre. Kessi, an accomplished sailmaker and


36 SEAHORSE


sailor, including a win in the prestigious Mirabaud Bol d’Or, has already achieved commercial success in paragliding with – you guessed it – inflatable devices. Kessi argues that the IWS promises better point- ing, reduced heel and less effort on the boat as the foil will set itself in the best position with little or no outside interference. Do away with winches, don’t bother


trimming upon exiting a tack, don’t worry about mast compression and structural stresses… The concept has been tested in 30kt+ winds with two ‘reefs’ – that’s the mast retracted by 2.2m – and reportedly behaved perfectly, with minimal load on the mainsheet and handling gusts with grace. Kessi’s concept won an innovation


award at the last Paris Boat Show. Undoubtedly wings are steadily getting more exposure in sailing – a few years ago some might have called Kessi a mad professor, but the Cup effect and the fact that big yards are now investing in these solutions have turned a page.


Taking it to the masses Quietly and until now very much beneath the radar, interest in wings has been build- ing in the production sector, as Groupe Bénéteau’s Bruno Belmont notes: ‘We started working on the subject in 2006, looking at creating boats that would be more suited for first-time sailboat buyers, in mature markets such as the US where we


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