How do you go about making the Ezzy Wave - the worlds most legendary wave sail range even better?
It is a really tough question to ask but David Ezzy is once again certain that for 2007 he has produced a range that will keep core Ezzy converts happy as well as continuing to win over even more sailors to the brand based on it's legendary strength, build quality and performance.
Over to the maestro himself below.
Completely new profile
The new 2007 Infinity and Wave SE sails have radically more shape forward than any windsurfing sail I've ever made. I am referring mainly to the two battens directly above the boom.
Battens #3 and #4 on the Wave range have a very deep draft right behind the mast. Having this extreme shape forward gives the sails a very stable, yet powerful feeling. I believe that all sails are much too flat in the front in this area, which makes them not want to fly in a stable manner.
The flatter sails feel twitchy and require constant trim from the sailor. Just like if you tried to sail with a piece of flat plywood.
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
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.
Other Refinements
We have new sleeve cloth this year for the Ezzy 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 Neil Pryde and everyone else uses. After testing it I realised 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. Our new clew patch better supports loading. We have a new head patch and extra reinforcement on the foot of the sails. Also we have 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 I have shortened the booms 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."
Ezzy Wave SE 2007 line up
Ezzy Infinity 2007 lineup
The 2007 range will be available later in the year and some shops are taking pre-orders to ensure that you have your quiver in time for the beginning of the Autumn season.
More info: www.ezzy.com
