The Seahorse pimp parade continues with a good look at a sailmaker you may nothing about, but will shortly…
Incidence Sails has been a leading name in long-distance offshore racing sails for decades, often leading many of the world’s other sailmakers in this tough genre due to their experience and success in the classes that compete in trans-oceanic events, such as the Imoca 60s, Mini 6.50s and Class40s, and of course some of the most famous giant multihulls that ever howled their way into the oceanic record books. The combination of intense racing in often gruelling offshore conditions has steered Incidence in identifying the crucial balance between innovation and durability that has allowed so many of their customers to stand on the podium at some of the world’s toughest ocean racing events.
And while Incidence has been making steady progress in its evolution of sail cloth and design, to steadily produce impressive results over the years, the development of their latest product, DFi, has just been recognised as another significant leap forward.
The High Technology Prize given by the Nautical Industries’ Federation (FIN) is a prestigious recognition in the field of offshore racing innovation; it is judged by a distinguished panel, composed of specialist journalists, representatives of Eurolarge Innovation, the Nautical Certification Institute (ICNN) and FIN itself. It was Incidence’s DFi product that took the award for 2015.
‘We would like to thank the FIN and the jury of the High Technology prize. We are very proud of this award,’ said Yannick Richomme, development director at Incidence. ‘DFi is Incidence’s current filament solution, which emerged from the development of D4 membrane. It is characterised by its lightness, its strength and its shape-holding properties.
‘We launched DFi at the Paris Boat Show after a rigorous validation programme: technical, legal and also to ensure that we can consistently produce to the standard required and at the price wanted. The final process, a full-scale sailing test, took place during last November’s Transat Jacques Vabre, where three boats were equipped with DFi sails. This test proved convincing because of the tough weather conditions encountered on the way to a podium finish in the Imoca class.’
The process that led to this award-winning product started two years ago with the formation of Incidence’s own integrated design department to analyse, test and produce what became DFi.
‘We started with D4,’ said Pierre-Antoine Morvan, R&D engineer at Incidence and an experienced match-racer. Read on.
