JC: How much development goes into the new gear for each season?
RW: There is a lot of development that goes into the sails and boards, as much as time and budget will allow. If we can make five sets of sails in a development cycle we will. But if we can also do ten we will if it is possible.
The whole programme is based on finding and understanding what to change in the given time period. There is no point changing something if you don’t understand why you are changing it. Ultimately I want equipment that is going to win races, events and a world title. So under those parameters, the equipment must be fast, be able to fight in racing situations, needs to be comfortable to sail in every range of conditions, and very importantly it needs to be strong and not fall apart. If the gear can’t handle a lot of use it is not good for us as team riders or for the paying customers. After all the testing the final product is decided on by the designer, the testers, the market, and the big boss. It all has to work together so we can come up with the best overall products. When we finally choose our equipment for the next season, if there is something I am not happy with, there isn’t anything you can do apart from race as well as you can, report back to your designer and test team and hopefully you can work on that and keep improving the products.
