Alinghi's new black mainsail
A few minutes before ITA-90 passed in front of us, we got the opportunity to get a good view of Alinghi's new black mainsail. According to Bob from the excellent website Cupinfo, from first glance it appears the genoa is standard fare, but that black main may have very high carbon content. In addition, no loadpath "strings" are visible at all in the sail (supposing they are there, but hidden by the depth of color).
There are many wrinkles, which might be removed / reduced through various controls (vang, cunningham, outhaul, etc.). The overall shape is very fine, a distinct blade. Look at the flat top down the luff (edge at mast) and moreso the leech (trailing edge). That shape is as good or better than those of Emirates Team New Zealand (who I feel had the best main sails for well over a year now).
North Sails has a few new materials that are said to be improvements on their 3DL string technology (which was state of the art not so long ago). Most probably that's something pretty new and unusual.
Alinghi's boat with her mainsail hoisted inside the canal. Valencia, 25 July 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
Alinghi's boat with her mainsail hoisted inside the canal. Valencia, 25 July 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
Alinghi's boat sailing off to join SUI-64. Valencia, 25 July 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
Alinghi's boat sailing off to join SUI-64. Valencia, 25 July 2006. Photo by Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing
7 Comments:
...I would bet that the sail is not carbon but all Kevlar and they just put in some pigments into the matrix... However these sails should give the other top teams a little head-ache...
This a revolution. The most important it's not material, its method to build, maybe Alinghi has found the perfect mainsail production, better than 3D. This is the perfect material, no yarn composite material.
revolution? mate, it's ONE sail. And who is to say it's not a 3dl? North has new "broze" kevlar when is a darker green. Once in the laminate, the strings become darker. North also has dark flim that used to be used in production 3dl sails- supposed to be better UV wise. revolution, certainly not.
...haha, open your eyes and stop dreaming! This has nothing to do with 3dl!
NSA Technologies painted in black to keep everyone guessing
...what is NSA Technologies! Found an entry in a Swiss commercial register of a company called NSA Technologies SA where Grant Simmer is member of the board. Is this the company? Is anything known what they are exactly doing?
NSA = north sails alinghi?
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