The Lightwind-Beast development

I get many emails on how to make catamarans more effective for lighter winds. We can see many sails which is not so efficient. It has power, but cannot go forward fast. I have seen several cases on different regattas that the boat is flying a hull in really low wind, , but was very very slow. It means it has too much drag.

This whole light wind passion started several years ago, when we bought our Tornado. We have lots of light wind days on Lake Balaton. I have started to think how to pimp her. Now let's see what was done in the last two years.

Chupacabra XL

For the 2008 Olympic Games some Tornado class teams developed a gennaker which could be used sailing upwind in very light breeze. This sail and the mystery around it made a huge storm within the class, and a South-American sailor started to call the sail Chupacabra.

This sail is a slightly bigger version for a different boat, but using the famous Chupacabra development.

Europa 30 Bestia - the mid-genoa

"Bestia" (HUN 12) is another Europa 30 we are working on. This boat has already a set from us, which was made last year. The inventory contains the genoa, the mainsail, and a small jib. It turned out that the gap is too big between the jib and the genoa. The task was to make a mid-genoa which perform best from 4-6 beaufort.

3D view of "Bestia" sails

1D Inside - The TD and designer chat

A little Q-A with our Technical director and designer, Marton about 2015.

Photo: Kovács Zita

Favourit project:

Nice call. I do not really have a favorite project. I like all of them, because I can see the challenge in it. I really like to work with the sailors, find and understand their needs about sails, sailing styles, conditions. Under this, all the projects were favorites.

1D Inside - Chat with the Loft manager

A little Q-A with our loft manager, Deni about 2015.

Favourit project:

For sure,  the Optimist project. The road from the talking to the first generation sails was a great fun. It is a continuous work. We started the designing process with my experience from coaching, I was fully involved in the testing and tuning process, so I feel this project very close to me.

It was a great challenge to compare the materials and designs. Small boat, big challenge.

Photo: Lászlófy Csaba

4th February - 1D Loft 2 - intro

This post is a little bit different, as we have our birthday. It happened exactly one year ago that the One Design Sails brand reborned after several decades of rest.

I have started to work with sails - I can say- a long time ago. There was a point, when everything had a turn into a much higher state. This point was 4th February 2012. On this day, I met with Pablo Soldano to make more deeper our work together. 

It was a really great meeting and something started to change.