Wind Surf Unfurls New Couture Sails
By Anne Kalosh.
One of the world’s largest motor sail yachts, Windstar Cruises’ WIND SURF, was recently dressed in nearly half a football field’s worth of new sails. They were handcrafted by the maritime designers and artisans at Incidence Sails, France’s largest commercial sailmaker.
The sturdy Dacron sailcloth measured 21,570 square feet/2,015 square meters.
Spread across WIND SURF’s five towering masts, the sails make up more than a half-acre of triangular beauty. The sails unfurl daily, harnessing wind power to propel the ship.
WIND SURF’s evening sail-away is an event. A crescendo of Vangelis’ dramatic “Conquest of Paradise” accompanies the unfurling.
The sails were designed and manufactured at Incidence Sails’ facilities in Brest and La Rochelle, carried out in close collaboration with the company’s Charentais and Breton design offices by noted designers Stéphane Amiot and Maxime Paul, who competed for France in the 1992 Olympics.
Wind Surf shows off its 21,570 square feet (2,015 square meters) of new French sails. * Photo: Wndstar Cruises
WIND SURF’s five furling jib sails each measure 3,800 square feet/355 square meters in area, and one fore jib sail measures 2,570 square feet/240 square meters.
The computerized sails are self-furling and operate remotely from the bridge with fore and aft guidance from WIND SURF’s nautical officers. The ship’s top speed under sail power alone was recorded as 15.6 knots during a trans-Atlantic crossing.
The WIND SURF sails are replaced approximately every five years. Windstar will be having the retired sails repurposed into bags for sale in the gift shops of its six ships.
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HEIDI SARNA
