
Nowadays consumers tend to have an innate sense that if something is complicated or difficult, it must be better than something that is simple.
Take food, for instance. Sat at a table waiting for your jus-drizzled ensemble of painstakingly designed food to arrive, you might believe that you’re at the absolute pinnacle of gastronomic delight. But really, can you honestly say that it gave more satisfaction than the fried egg sandwich they serve at the local cafe after a cold day’s windsurfing? Possibly not.
Empirically, simplicity is often the key to happiness. Keep things simple and they generally work well. Complicate them and even with the best intention and design in the world, more often than not they end up a disappointment. So what’s that got to do with freeride sails? Well, many people make the step to cambered sails because they want a new challenge. They want to go faster and be able to hold on to a bigger sail in stronger winds. Whilst rotational sails have many strengths and virtues over cambers, there’s no doubting that cambered sails offer a sense of glide, stability and speed that rotationals simply can’t match.
Once you’ve resolved to make the step to a cambered sail, you need to decide how far to go. Looking through most brands’ ranges, you’re likely to see a thoroughbred, wide luff-tubed race sail, which will have around five cams. One step down from this and most will offer some kind of ‘detuned’ version of this sail - still sporting that wide luff tube, but trimmed down on the camber inducers to around three. And then at the bottom rung of cambered ranges, most brands offer a narrower luff-tubed ‘entry-level’ cambered sail, most of which are twin-cam.
Whilst it’s easy to be seduced by the full-on race designs’ promise of ultimate top speed, stability and kudos, there are some serious warnings that need to be considered…
Is this sail for you?
Rigging: Twin-cam sails are already considerably more hassle than rigging a rotational. Do you really want five cams and a very wide luff tube to contend with?
Weight: There’s no avoiding the fact that cambered sails are heavier than rotationals thanks to the extra components. Common sense dictates that more cams and battens equals more weight.
Ease of use: Cambered sails aren’t just heavier, they also have a wider luff tube and clunkier rotation thanks to the cams. Going the whole hog to a race sail is one giant step up from a rotational. Twin-cams are a much more manageable step, and still offer great ease of use alongside most of the benefits of their more dedicated siblings.
Ability: It’s not actually a question of being ‘good enough’ to sail a race sail, it’s more about being good enough to get the benefit from it. And, being brutally honest, most people aren’t. You need to sail 1-2m bigger than you would choose in another style of sail, a dedicated board and fin designed to cope with the sail, and the skills to pin it down and hold the power at the limit of control. If you aren’t confident about this, then you will almost certainly get more performance from a twin-cam.
And that brings us nicely onto our fried egg sandwich of flat water sails - the twin-cam or ‘entry-level’ cambered sail. They can’t match the glamour, hype and promise of a thoroughbred race sail, but for most people they will offer a lot more fun (and in fact, performance).
Our test team of Clones took six of the most prominent designs on the market and headed off to Dahab, courtesy of Neilson Holidays. Neilson were fantastic in catering for their every whim and desire - in fact they’ve arrived back home quite the bunch of divas. A massive thankyou to Neilson for all their help during the trip, which far exceeded any of our expectations.
So, finally, before we get to the nitty-gritty of how each sail performed, let’s see what the designers have to say about twin-cams..
POINT-7: Andrea Cucchi (ITA-1), Head of Development
SIMMER: Tomas Persson, Simmer Designer
NORTH SAILS: Raoul Joa, Product Manager
GAASTRA: Daniel Richter, International Brand Manager
TUSHINGHAM: Paul Simmons, UK Brand Manager
NAISH: Nils Rosenblad, Product Designer
