weight loss program
Foilfeed® has worked on a development project based on the Foilfeed® M1 for mainsails. Basically, the M1 can replace the traditional headboards and rivets, saving weight and time, still saving the mast and luff tapes from the tear and wear.
The focus of this development was aimed at small keelboats and dinghies, that – by tradition – sail around with traditional heavy headboard solutions in their mainsails, adding excess weight and material.
This is not to say, that headboards are redundant from now on, but merely that there is a useful and better alternative for the majority of one design classes around now, substantiated by the Foilfeed® M1. Especially if you’re looking for margins like saving weight aloft, saving your spar and avoiding luff tape problems…
Foilfeed® M1 both bulky, light and stiff
Though the Foilfeed® M1 is designed to be incorporated underneath the traditional headboard solutions, it can actually work for itself as both a bulky (for the liner) and stiffening (supporting top of roach) feature, since it has two sides build in, making the headboard redundant for almost any One design class around, thus protecting luff tapes and masts.
According to ISAF officials, this methodology is fully compliant with both ISAF Equipment Rules and the majority of One Design Class rules.
J24 mainsail head lost 310 grams!
In the final processes of the development project, we took a couple of major classes’ mainsails and copied their solutions and dimensions, to try make a comparable sample to existing standards. All had traditional headboard plates in both alloy and plastic. It turned out the weight loss of a J24 mainsail head was 310 gram! More than a quarter of a kilo in the farthest part of a yachts rotation center (center of inertia).
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