Hans Kleingeld, you won the bet. Great sailing. You improved your personal best speed by a fair margin. Although it was cold and rainy and not as windy as last Wednesday it was once again a nice gathering of speed addicts at strand Horst.

I messed a little with the set-up of the sail...not good. At the end I went back to the normal setting for flat water and cranked the downhaul to the very limit. In much lighter wind I hit just about the same peak speed as before. Next year's sails of almost every sailbrand incorporate a lot more "static" twist in the topsection of the sail and a more pronounced "belly" around and beneath the boom area. This will have a positive effect on topspeed for sure.

With this year's sails you're forced to crank the downhaul up till the very limit to get the best out of it, even in moderate windspeeds. This works on flat water but on chop it will make the sail too loose, the back gets floppy. The only solution is to back off the downhaul a little, but the sail can get heavy on the hands and will be more suitable for heavier sailors. Lighter guys will benefit a lot from the lastest developments.