The Transat bakerly – DFi® is in the air on the Multi50

by Incidence Sails on 3 May 2016 The Multi50 rules have evolved recently and now allow the use of different materials when designing sails. This change means Lalou Roucayrol (Arkema), one of Incidence Sails’ greatest fans together with his direct competitor, Erwan Le Roux (FenêtréA Cardinal), have set out to test the new Incidence Sails material. This is their feedback:

Erwan Le Roux (FenêtréA Cardinal), using a new J2 made in DFi®
'In terms of the sail’s material, since the change in the rules for the Multi50, it has been important for us to keep on top of new technologies. Things move really fast and we can’t afford to fall behind our competitors.

2016 was a good year to test these new materials in view of the forthcoming new boat: testing DFi® is one of the obvious things we needed to do.

We initially had a little trouble getting used to it because it's very rigid: the sail is difficult to fold, we were afraid of breaking it! When you bang on the sail, it makes an incredible noise. However in terms of performance, this stiffness is a true evolution. We'll see how the sail will age, but for now I’m very pleased with its lightness and stiffness. Tomorrow if I had to choose sails for a new boat, I would get DFi®.'

Lalou Roucayrol (Arkema) set of DFi® sails
'We tested a Solent made in DFi® last year and we felt a huge difference in terms of weight and response. It made complete sense to change to these kinds of sails. In Multi50 we now have access to all possible materials for building sails: carbon, kevlar, D4, etc. Therefore the development of DFi® meets our objectives of gaining weight and reacting to the sudden gusts. We have a main sail, J1, J2, J3 made in in DFi®, the large gennaker is D4. A new code 0 in DFi® was tested on The Transat prologue between St Malo and Plymouth.

We felt a real big difference: it accelerates immediately, doesn’t lose its shape, in all cases it deforms uniformly and not only in part of the sail. We no longer get the typical deformation and acceleration: the gusts convert directly into acceleration. And weight gain is huge (20%). We also went a step further in designing the sails from six to five battens. In the end, it makes a real big difference.

The only fault these sails have today is storage and handling, but Incidence is working on it and it will evolve.

I have been working with Incidence for twenty years! My first boat was equipped with multi impact and this was also the case when I got the Francis Joyon’s Banque Populaire. I have remained faithful ever since!'

These two sailors, who have raced each other and who know each other so well, will face each other using the new sail configurations, for the first time on The Transat bakerly: leaving Plymouth on the second of May in a race to New York.

On this legendary solo transatlantic Paul Meilhat, the skipper of the IMOCA60 SMA is kitted out with a full set of DFi® sails.