When I’m based at a centre doing a clinic, my over-riding priority is to get everyone set up well on the right kit – because nothing good will happen on the technique front unless you’re balanced, comfortable and confident. Many centres have a wide choice of designs. Marvellous … but too much choice can be a burden. You get used to a rig; then the next day the wind has changed and/or someone has nicked the one you tuned so finely. You’re forced to take another design, which is good … but different – and so you waste an hour tweaking and getting used to it. In Vassiliki this year the place looked like a ‘Bolt-fest!’ Neilson and Ocean Elements are just two of the centres, which have majored on Bolts. Why?

1. Because they are so easy to rig, tune and use2. And because they eliminate the burden of decision.

I was based at the Neilson centre. Over the week we were blessed with winds ranging from 12-25 knots. As my clients asked me for sail advice on day one I basically said, “follow the Bolts, and all will be well.”

Neilson racks full of Bolts

People agonise over sail type a they change sizes – “do I need cams?” “Do I need a free-ride/freestyle or wave sail?” The Bolts make that decision for you, gradually mutating and getting more manoeuvre-oriented as they get smaller but still maintaining the same easy feel.

When you change up or down size, you just want to feel that someone has turned the power up or down – you do NOT want to have to totally readjust to a new design. The Bolts offer consistency and familiarity across the whole range  from the 9.5 down to the 4.0.

Smaller sizesThe area of most confusion currently lies in the sizes of 5.7 and under. How many battens? Where do you want the effort? How full? What feeling – crisp or soft? And the answer you get depends on whether you ask a freestyler or a wave sailor or a speed merchant. One situation last month in Vass illustrated the glory of the Bolts perfectly. In 18 knots of wind Tim (88 kg) was hammering up and down on an Atom 120 and twin cam 7.8 Bolt – and next to him and holding her own was Kirsty (60kg) on a 103 Kode and a Bolt 5.0. Kirsty, as with many improving free-riders, was still on a relatively big board for her weight (in case the waterstarts didn’t work out) but was getting planing easily and screeching along thanks to a small sail that is both light but still enough low end power to drive a big board.

PH mid duck gybe with 6.5 Bolt

But before you cast it is as just an easy entry-level tractor, on the same stretch of water we had Max, a Neilson instructor, busting out every new skool trick in the book on the same Bolt 5.0. He ‘d just rigged it with a little more outhaul to tighten up the back end and make it neutralise more easily.

Not surprisingly, 3 of the people on the Vass course went out and immediately bought a selection of Bolts the moment they got home. 

PH standing with 5.8 Bolt with James Neilson centre manager