ACCWing

As boat tests go, this one was a little out of the ordinary, since it wasn’t really the boat we were testing, but its rig, and more specifically, its sail. We went along to Port la Foret in southern Brittany (one of the realms of offshore racing) to test this new ACCWing, as it is called. A few steps further down the dock from our catamaran was Éric Defert’s MOD 70, Axciss Group, so we were clearly in good company.
With elegant canoe bows, there’s no lack of allure, but it’s not the lines that catch the eye... instead, you look up a little to discover a 55-foot (17-meter) carbon rig that supports an astonishing 645-square foot (60 m²), very wide, yet flexible wing.
At the origin of the project is Philippe Markovich, the director of Sicomin, a major chemical and composite products company here in France that’s widely known as a formulator and supplier of epoxy resins. Philippe teamed up with Hugues de Turckheim who actually developed the ACCWing. Hugues was formerly a designer with TIGA sailboards, a company that had become the world’s leading manufacturer of winds...