American Skimbat

American Skimbat 3.2 SUP Skate Sail. Decent sea ice Womans Bay, Kodiak Alaska, 17MAR26.

A blast from the past. 19 years ago sailing in the blueberry field behind our house in Maine. The Kitewing 5.5 is an antique now. Who wants to sail a 5 M wing that weighs 15 lbs?

Its been less than a month. Now its surreal. Birds swim where sailers flew.

I am riding my bike down twisted roads, buffeted by the caress of cars.

Sailing vicariously like Stuart Little on the deck of a one meter yacht,

vacuum formed Kevlar or carbon molded and shaped by dreams,

These are the thoughts that make my day.

Changes for a tight 4 meter rig.

9MAR26

A CONUNDRUM OF WING
American Skimbat Makes a Case

I dont understand why racing sailors have not embraced the hard wing.

Is it because inflatables are easy?

Is it because the best reference is the heavy antique Kitewing?

Is it because there is no suitable hard rig available?

On a windy day you can unzip your coat at the top end of a pond to increase your own sail area and blow to the down wind shore. Wing shape, drag and weight are the factors which determine performance. From bed sheets and bamboo, to carbon and Dyneema, performance is all about shape, drag and weight.

Empiric experience is the bane of a theorist pundit who may as well be a bull s**t artist.

Get past the pundits who insist on traditional design. Pundits insist on Y tubes or preach about battens which will invert or dangerous carbon tubes that break or insist that there is a relationship with hang gliders.

Traditional wing builders, influenced by hang gliding pundits, built heavy hand held wings which are not capable of flying their own weight in light air or easy to manipulate compared to lighter weight inflatables.

Light and easy to manipulate are what makes any wing stand out. Inflatables can fly their own weight at relatively low wind speeds. Light weight is easy to manipulate. Light weight flies.

However, inflated spars rely on dimension and material stiffness to maintain geometry. The inflated wing spar is too bulky to be an efficient aerodynamic element.

Folks have relied on the skate sail for centuries. Light weight simple skate sails work. A simple skate sail derived wing is fast at top speed because it generates less drag. There is no thick inflated tube or an unsupported sail fabric flapping in the breeze.

Simple hard wings derived from skate sails are more efficient fliers at slower speeds than the same size inflatable. It is because strong stiff frames of carbon tube with battens and Dyneema fabric allow for more efficient aerodynamic and adjustable wing shapes.

American Skimbat wings derived from skate sails are more efficient, cheaper, and last longer than the inflated counter part.

Obviously materials have influenced the design of a more efficient wing. Carbon fiber tubes are light weight and strong. Dyneema fabric is light weight and strong. Battens induce better shape.

Foil riders have revolutionized the sport of hand held wing sailing. Water born foils have captivated sailors from Maui to the Mediterranean. Foil riding with a hand held wing has taken the wing sailing sport from a niche of snow and ice sailors to mainstream at the beach on a sunny day.

Foil riders rely on inflated wings.

But inflated wings are not as aerodynamic as hard wings.

Tensioning sail fabric against battens and frame tubes allow the hard rig to infinitely tune or adjust wing shape. Inflated wings are crude by comparison.

Why do racing sailors continue to ignore the simple concept of hard hand held wings which have proven to be more efficient than inflated wings?

American Skimbat SUP skate sails are not designed for racing sailors but they do prove a point. The weight of simple American Skimbat SUP skate sails is on par with inflatable wings the same size. The aerodynamic comparisons favor the hard wing.

American Skimbat has been designing and building wings since the Kitewing 3.0 Sport, the same wing to set a world speed record last season, Erik Karelfeld: 64 MPH. At American Skimbat we know hand held wing sailing.

During sailing sessions here in Alaska, inflatables end up languishing in a pit area. Experts or beginners go sailing with what works best. They dont pick the heavy antique Kitewing OY based rig, they dont pick the inflatable. At sailing demo sessions, folks pick the light weight rig which works the best.

At the end of the day, its not the complication of the pump, the bulky pack, or the wing which blows away when you put it down. Hard wings sail better. Folks pursuing performance gravitate to the hard wing.

If you want to play catch, the Frizbee flies better than a beach ball.

If you are a racing sailor who wants to improve, go to Americanskimbat.com and read up.

Its not about theory any more. Heavy overbuilt wings like the traditional Kitewing, including the 3.0 Sport, have had their day. Light weight rigs from the inflatable to higher performance aerodynamic SUP skate sails are here.