Hyde Sails Release New Squib Designs
by Ben McGrane 17 Apr 22:28 NZST
Hyde Sails have achieved many successful years with the current sail designs which have had continual updates and small changes on the way to numerous Championship victories over the past decade. During 2023 we started to consider options to create entirely new designs and a brief was created as to where we thought improvements could be made.
One Design Manager, Ben McGrane, spent time on the water at the National Championship, photographing our current sails and identifying areas where they could be improved with a view to a new design direction instead of continued evolution.
In the following months we took feedback from a number of sailors to combine with the information we had correlated from our internal team, by the Inland Championships we had worked with a new designer to produce the initial test designs, which Nigel Grogan and Ben McGrane put to excellent use, winning the event comfortably scoring 1,1,3,1.
Over the winter we have fine-tuned the designs with additional testing before finalising B3 designs which we are now delighted to launch making them now available to purchase.
How are they different?
The new designs have a flatter base in both sails allowing both the jib and mainsail to be sheeted closer to the centreline. The expectation is as the sails are used more the setup for both main and jib will be to utilise more twist than our previous designs.
A large amount of time has been spent studying the unavoidable luff sag inherent with the Squib rig design and making sure the jib is optimised to these parameters.
Broad seam shape has been increased further up the sail and luff curve reduced, the benefits are a much better flying shape for the mainsail downwind while upwind the sails are easier to trim, more responsive to sheet tension adjustment and already showing to be a step forward on the 422 designs with plenty more to come from continued tuning and setup adjustments.
Alongside the sail development and testing we have also worked on a new tuning guide for both the 422 sails and new B3 sails to make sure our customers have all the information required to get the maximum performance from both options.
Order now!
We still have limited stock of our 422 design mainsails which are available on a fantastic offer price and these design will remain available for those still wanting to go with what they know. The new designs are now available to purchase on our website and supplied on a 4 week lead time from order.
www.hydesails.com/product-category/dinghies-keelboats/squib-dinghies-keelboats