Found this company manufacturing wing sails. Interesting concept. I would be curious to try one. At first sight the rigging is a bit more tedious than cam sails I’d say.
www.mwsails.com/team

Another one trying to screw windsurfing. Get in line guys, wait your turn, or why don’t you go screw kiting instead .

I have watched this about a year. Met the inventor and saw the sail at USWA Nationals in Virginia last year. I did not get to demo one. I think he is on to something. I'm particularly interested because of his claims for being able to handle a much wider wind range with one sail. He might be wrong. I'm pretty sure this would be better for windsurfing if he is right. Follow the link shown in the first post. Remember not so long ago when foils seemed like a too complicated idea?

I’m surprised you guys don’t realize it’s fundamental flaw. It’s based on something powered by engine. What will give you that initial thrust and take you up to the speed required for a wing like this to start working? External engine with a propeller, a sling, catapult, cannon for laughing out loud? A wave could power you up, but reaching that wave is a whole different thing. I’ll pay this guy just to watch his creation in a washout.
Sailing is different then flying and the assumption that the required parts are interchangeable is wrong. We can’t even copy directly birds wings, because that will require us to pump madly and we don’t want that. I would welcome an innovation that would make a preassembled rig unfurl and be ready for action in seconds like a bats wing with no performance penalty and that doesn’t cost an arm and leg .

The concept or product may not work well enough for many reasons, but the flaw is not fundamental. The highest tech sailboats in the world use wing sails (eg America's Cup). I've looked at his site and his videos, but I have not seen or heard a testimonial from an independent source--that is telling.

For a new product to be successful in our sport /and others/ it has to improve in 3 key areas over the old ones in my opinion. Those key areas being /in order of importance/:
1. Fun factor. May or may not include performance.
2. User friendliness. Complexity of handling and learning to use.
3. Price
I don’t see how this sail improves on any of this areas except performance /hypothetically / , quite the opposite for the last 2 I’m sure.
I’m glad you mentioned foiling in your previous post. I can clearly draw a parallel between the two for the perceived/theoretical performance improvement and actual real world results.
Remember the first foiling marketing media?
Foil dealer:
- It’s so easy! Just buy this inexpensive aluminum/plastic foil /1000$ only/ and you’ll be flying like Robby Naish in this video.
Dealer, next year:
-What? It doesn’t work and the thing ripped out the fin box out of your board when you hit the bottom? Sorry, the “cheap” foil that I sold you is just for display purposes, but you can use it as a coffee table base in your man cave, how cool. Now why don’t you buy our high performance all carbon foils for just 2000$ that are guaranteed to fly ... oh and don’t forget to add one of those boards with reinforced fin box , deep tuttle preferably, just another 2000$ or so.
Dealer, 2 years later:
-Still not working?! Sorry, the new board with the special box that I sold you is actually not good for foiling. But no worries, now we have in stock this useless otherwise special foiling boards that have all the right dimensions and the foil box and foot straps are placed specifically for foiling . Just 2000$ , but I’ll give you a discount because I like you.
Dealer, 3 years later:
-Again not working? No way, definitely the problem is in your regular sails. Buy a quiver of the special foiling sails and you’ll be all set. Never mind their goofy looks, it’s all in the name of foiling performance, do you want to fly or not?! Another 2000$, but hey, you can use your old masts and booms! What a great deal!
Dealer, 4 years later:
-What, it’s too gusty and choppy where you foil and you are not making any progress? We can help here also. We invite you to our beautiful paradise resort where you can enroll in our fully stocked foiling academy and our knowledgeable instructors will get you flying like a pro in 10 days or less -3000$ and NO money back guarantee.
You:
-And after that?
Dealer:
-Simple. Quit your job, sell your home and move to a foiling friendly place. And btw if your wife has had enough of this already and left you taking the kids and kicking you out of your house, then you’ve been lucky and can move right away!

I hope you find it as funny as I do.
Seriously now. A good clue if a product is a winner or a looser is how attractive it is to women. I contribute the success of the paddle board/WindSUP largely to its attractiveness to the smarter half of humanity, besides
touching the 3 key points. Will this heavy, complicated and expensive sail or the medieval, torture device alike foil be attractive to women? Take ME for example. I was moderately attractive to them in my youth because of appearance and absolutely unattractive in my later years because of empty bank account

Ady, love your relpy, very entertaining.

...And despite the slightly doomsday foiling scenario you portrayed, there might be some truth to what you are saying. But I can't blame an industry who's been on the decline for 2 decades to make it happen again to survive. No matter what, the market will decide whether it is a hype or not. For sure, the foiling industry's "easy, light wind solution" is heavily exaggerated and requires top-skills to achieve. At least that's my impression after spending a few hours on the thing! It takes a lot more wind to fly. "Just fly in 8 kn with a 6.0!" might be doable but it is not less work and easier to achieve than to just handle a 4.7 in 30kn in my opinion. It is physically demanding and technically difficult.

But what I like about inventors and their invention is that sometimes it creates a surprising and successful technology or product concept that makes life easier or more enjoyable. For that to happen, I am convinced that initially, one has to suspend disbelief for a while before evaluating the value of an idea or concept. The idea must be given the time to mature and eventually develop into something good. Also, it seems that very few inventions are truly functional or optimal in their first edition. However, I also agree that not every innovation should make it to market and that at one point, if the goal is make a business out of it, some hard-facts reality-check is needed.

So, in a typical me, I'm always intrigued by what's novel and will more likely be giving it the benefit of the doubt to see if it can go somewhere once it has a chance to be developed further. I'm not a fluid mechanics engineer but the thing has merit if I trust what the inventor is saying. Maybe it will give an idea to someone else to come up with something even better, who knows?...

A. I'm trying to figure out a fair way for a group of us to buy one, try it out, then sell it to the highest bidder. The website today(www.mwsails.com/team) said $960 is the price. One possible scenario:all pay a set amount, each member gets a demo of at least one weekend day, at the end of the sequence of demos the sail goes to the highest bidder who then pays each of the other members their share of the winning bid. We might get a reduced price or free shipping because we would be "x" number of potential customers. Figure an initial cost of $96 per person for 10 of us or $48 per person for 20. Figure an auction price at the end of $480 on up.
B. The sail would be shipped to someone in the geo area with the most members, eventually taken to the next area, and on to each member.
C. I live in Cedar Falls IA, I'm willing to travel to Chicago, St. Louis, or Clinton Lake to receive or pass on the sail when it is my turn. I have a friend in northern IN who I think would be willing to go in on this. The more members there are the cheaper the buy-in, but also the faster the transfers must happen from one sailor to another.
D. Buy early in June, have the auction in late September or early October.
E. There certainly are other ways to do this: one possibility is rental fee $5 for each week day you have it, $50 for each weekend day,
F. Scheduling is going to be difficult to figure out. Earliest paid in for an area gets earliest use.
G. I'm in. Anyone else interested? Anyone have a better method?

That's a cool idea. An variant to your proposal would be to contact the inventor directly and ask him to send us a used demo sail for a bunch of us in the region to try? He might just ask us to pay for shipping, who knows?
I already have the pump (that came with my inflatable SUP) so I'm all set there!

Good idea Greg. I will contact him. He might already be planning to have one at the USWA Course Racing Nationals at Worthington MN June 6-7-8. I'm going and might be able to save on the shipping too.

1.

1989 the number another summer (get down)
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hitting your heart cause I know you got soul
(Brothers and sisters, hey)
Listen if you're missing y'all

- Fight the Power, Public Enemy (1989)


AEROFORCE ad, 1989



Out of that concept / technology we have many sail makers to this day with a double luff race / speed sail line if you're wanting to go down the "wing" road.


It's All Been Done...before.




2. I wouldn't do any of the plans Del suggested. The sails made in the last 15+ years are certainly more than good enough. Spend any additional money on a high performance mast or boom.

Another example of “too good to be true “ from Naish-the Wing. Looking at the awesome promotional video you may think that this is is just the right toy for light wind days /as they try to convince you/ unless you don’t notice at 0:34 the fully powered windsurfer in the background. Misleading commercial at best.