Board with veil

The board with veil or windsurf is a machine floating made up of a float propelled by a free veil. One understands by free veil a Mât assembled on kneecap (foot of mast) which does not remain in a fixed position during the Navigation.

The board with veil can be regarded a smaller version of a sailing , but also as an extension of the Surf. It is practiced as well on Eau punt as on agitated water levels, even in the Vague S.

History

Several inventors allot the paternity of the board to veil.

First of all, young English Peter Chilvers who outlined, with the beginning of the year 1960, a kind of ancestor of the board with veil.

However, in May 1964, in Pennsylvania, American, Newman Derby, installs a mast and a sail on a board which holds more door than of the board of surfing. Its board is three meters long for 90 centimetres broad and has a mast and a kneecap which unfortunately can be directed only laterally and is in the back of the practitioner. During two years, it will polish its invention but will not be able to convince the investors.

In 1968, Hoyle Schweitzer, surfer and Jim Drake, aeronautical engineer, develops the system of universal joint which makes it possible to direct the Gréement in all directions while taking as a starting point the cardan joint present in car. They also create the Wishbone, a double arch making it possible to hold gréement, and whose form points out the bone of which it is inspired.

Jim Drake and Hoyle Schweitzer deposits then the mark Windsurfer while making sure of a patent in the countries having the most commercial relations with the United States (not having the means of depositing the patent that in two countries in Europe, they will choose England and Germany, forgetting France). Hoyle Schweitzer will repurchase thereafter the whole of the rights to Jim Drake. In 1973, the Dutch company Ten Cate buys the license Windsurfer for Europe and imports the first boards with veil. However, it is France which will become the country where the board with veil will develop more thanks to the many manufacturers who take as a starting point the Windsurfer without having to pay the license of it.

1977 see the arrival of Rocket Windsurfer, shorter board of jump, with fasteners for the feet (footstrap), and a moved back mast. It is also the year of the harness which will be used soon by all. The Funboard, which allows navigation in the waves and the strong wind, was born.

Robby Naish becomes the first world champion of board with veil (at 13 years).

Types of practices

Today, there exist several types of practices, which are due at the same time to the conditions of navigation and the preferences of the planchist, and which gives place to an adapted material.

Raceboard

Adapted to the Regatta on courses implementing all the paces and being run under very varied conditions, it is the practice which was retained for the Olympic sail. With the advent of the Funboard in the years 1990, it a long time retained only one weak share of participants, primarily of the young people for the training of the Régate but also of the accomplished athletes. The Monotypie is of rigor for this type of race (with initially a float of 3,72 meters with drift and a sail of 7,4m ² or 6,6m ².

Since 2005, the board support of the Olympic Games was modified in the idea to bring closer this material to that more powerful used with the daily newspaper by the runners formulated some; it is thus the equipment supplier Neil Pryde (sailing) who removed the market in front of Mistral and other competitors such Starboard or Exocet; will be thus the board present for the Olympic Games of Beijing in 2008.

Racing formulated

Exit of the Race , discipline of regatta on Funboard, formulated it was an attempt to supplant the raceboard, while increasing the chances to be able to run of the regattas under conditions of weaker wind and by privileging the spectacle (the boards sail with the planning ).

The floats of formulated are deprived of drift, they are broad (around 1 meter) and courts (less than 2,5 meters). The veils of formulated are generally very big sizes (of 8 square meters to 12,5 square meters). The materials employed are relatively expensive and fragile (Mât S, Wishbone S and Latte S of veil 100% carbon, veils in Monofilm of weak Grammage, etc), but very light, to support the performances in the weak winds.

Slalom

Practical combining speed, the skill and the strategy in the operations (Jibe), the slalom is practiced around two buoys, on a course in " 8" , simpler than those of the raceboards or of formulated, not integrating neither profit Into the wind nor profit Under the wind. It requires a wind stronger (starting from 15 node S) and called upon short floats (less than 2,7 meters) and narrow, like with powerful veils.

Speed

Practical rather not very current because very demanding in material and conditions, speed is however a discipline interesting for the research and development and the records. To make bursts of speed on 500m, very narrow boards are used and which go back little to the wind, also called guns .

Bump & Jump

It is a question of adapting to very diverse water levels, and of having fun there by combining surfings, jumps of waves, slalom, speed.

Freestyle

The goal is here to accumulate the figures and operations, generally on plain water, near the beach. One uses for that of the short floats (less than 2,6 meters) very operating and of the powerful, but not very fast veils.

Vagueness

The most spectacular practice, has as its name indicates it, like playing field the Vague S, generally in rather constant wind. It is about surfer the waves, but also to carry out jumps and Looping S. the floats of waves are short (around 2,5 meters) with little volume and very operating, the veils are small and not very powerful.

Material

Float

Cut and volume

The size of the float varies commonly between 2.20 and 4.10 meters. Its volume, which determines its " flottabilité" , varies between 60 and 260 liters.

The floats having a volume lower than 100 liters are generally regarded as " Toilets start " i.e. one can often start on these boards only while being made draw out of water by the force of the wind, contrary to the " grosses planches" to which one can extract the sail from water while being upright on the board. The weight and the skill of the planchist, more than volume of the float, will determine its capacity to reassemble the veil with the " car-veille" , upright on this one, or the obligation to set out again in " Toilets start ".

Forms

The modern floats evolved much /moved and now allow unimaginable prowesses in the years 1980, but also facilitate the training of the board with veil. The boards of training are broad (1 meter) but short (2,5 meters), have as much buoyancy (240 liters) and often preserve a drift, while being powerful. Their principal interest is to offer a great stability and a low sensitivity to the placement of the beginner, who can then concentrate on the control of his sail and the observation of the water level, more than on research of its balance. They can however give pleasure to the new planchist during several seasons, and enable him to evolve/move quickly, with a sail of bigger size.

For the most tested, broad ranges of floats are adapted to all the practices, in all the conditions of wind and sea, and with all the gauges and personal preferences. The floats without drift are called Funboard. Generally, the current trend remains with the short and broad floats, but the " shape" (form and characteristic of a float) is often the object of changes of course in the business cycle, the isolated solutions 5 years before with the profit of the last innovation returning finally to the last style…

Construction

The construction of the floats also progressed. If construction in sandwich is not a recent invention, this one spread in all the ranges of floats, with the detriment of construction in extruded section (foam wrapped in a skin in Polyéthylène, very door, very solid but irrevocable and not very rigid) or in thermoformé (bread of Polystyrène on which are hot moulded two panels out of plastic, more rigid and light that the extruded section, but also more fragile, in particular with the junction of the two panels, on the section of the float). New materials (Carbon fiber, Kevlar, foams of different density and wood) are used more and more to improve lightness and resistance of the floats.

Example of composition of a float in sandwich:

core in Polystyrene.
fine layer of foam PVC high density for the sandwich taken between two stratifications in Glass fiber, Carbon fiber, Kevlar and resin epoxy.
for certain marks, a fine layer of wood (improving the flexibility and the impact resistance specific)
completion: painting or varnished Polyurethane (like the automobie bodies), non-skid and " pads" out of foam on the bridge.

Gréement

The Gréement of a board with veil is consisted the foot of mast, which connects the mast to the float, the Mât, the veil, like by the Wishbone, is connected on a side to the mast and other to the veil, and which makes it possible to the veliplanchist to hold the veil. Each element is adapted to the requirements of the various practices. Once gréé (assembled), gréement is often indicated by the term of veil.

Veil

The size of the veil varies according to the gauge of the Véliplanchiste and the force of the wind: of 1,5m ² for the children with 12.5m ² approximately.

Main developments on the veils aimed at limiting their weight and to better defining their profile. Their form, triangular in the beginning, improved thanks to the use of Latte S, then of camber inducers , which made it possible to block the hollow of the veil in the first third on the basis of the leading edge, before being temporarily isolated for their various constraints.

The veils are assembled with various fabrics, according to the practices concerned. One can quote the dacron, mylar and the monofilm, this last being sometimes woven with filaments to improve his resistance.

Mast

Of a length ranging between 3,70m and 5m50, the Mât is a cone in Glass fiber and/or carbon, dismountable in two parts for transport. If the use of a extension is possible, each size of mast corresponds to an index of rigidity (IMCS), which is required by the veil. A mast can thus be used on similar veils. It can be of a reduced diameter, in which case it is known as RDM (reduced diameter mast) and is cylindrical.

Wishbone

Foot of mast

Connection element between the float and gréement, the foot of mast allows also étarquer the veil the Point of tack, using a Palan: it integrates Réas and a Taquet coincor. To ensure the mobility of gréement on the float, it consists of a " diabolo" in Rubber, of a tendon in Urethan or of a Cardan joint.

Outstanding figures of the sport

Among the most outstanding sportsmen of the discipline, one can quote Robby Naish or Björn Dunkerbeck. Multiple world champions of this Sport, they became stars in France under the journalistic feathers of Herve Hauss and Stephan Arfi and also thanks to the objectives of the photographers Bernard Biancotto, Sylvain Cazenave, Darrel Wong or even Jerome Houyvet.

Among the many French representatives of this sport, one can quote Raphaël Salles, Nathalie Lelièvre (five times world champion), Erik Thiémé, Patrice Belbéoc' H (world champion in vagueness in the Nineties) and of course Robert Teriitehau, which enormously contributed to the mediatization of this sport. More recently, Antoine Albeau, originating in the Ile de Ré, was illustrated while becoming world champion of Freestyle in 2001, of Formulated Windsurfing in 2004 and 2005 (December 17th, in Melbourne, Australia) and of Slalom 42 in 2006. It gains the " Wind" challenge; of Gruissan in 2005,2006 and 2007. It is one of the most titrated French history of the windsurf. In 2004, Faustine Merret gained the gold medal with the Olympic Games in Mistral One Design. Raphaëla Gouvello carried out the crossing of the Atlantic Oceans, Indien, and Peaceful, as well as Mediterranean.

Records

The absolute speed records with the veil are held by Finian Maynard on a board of funboard with a mean velocity of 48,70 node S (90,19 km/h) out of the 500 meters of the channel of the Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in the Camargue, on Sunday, April 10, 2005.

Karin Jaggi established a new female record with 41,24 node S (76,37 km/h), over the same channel and the same day (the old record went back to 12 years).

External bonds

Worldwindsurf: bonds windsurf and kitesurf of the whole world
PWA: the championship of the world
French federation of Veil
Kitesurfeurs Association and Véliplanchistes of Quebec, Canada

Simple: Windsurfing

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