MIKE SANDERSON SHARES THE DEVELOPMENT –
“I had been scratching my head trying to figure out how to transition into a narrower apparent wind type of sail without losing the conventional abilities to do string drops, peels, standard gybes, regular packing and so on.”
Eventually, Sanderson produced a sketch showing a Structured Luff-type lens on the leading edge morphing into a more conventional soft sail towards the trailing edge. “I put the concept to our designers, but initially I got no traction at all. It was like I had fallen out of a tree on Mars,” he laughs.
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THE STRUCTURED LUFF EVOLUTION
Doyle Sails with Structured Luff technology offer more versatility and changes the way a sail behaves through a more balanced distribution of loads.
As Grand Prix race yachts such as the Maxi 72's have got lighter and more powerful, they have become significantly faster. They are now sailing at apparent wind angles of 50-55 degrees. This has opened a gap in the inventories - to expect nylon or polyester spinnaker material to cope with a jib-like angle of attack is a big ask.
The Doyle Global Design Team have worked to engineer the structural transition from Stratis material down the forward section to off-the-shelf polyester into a sail that exceeds expectations.
