 Barry Spanier |
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The Worlds' Best Windsurfing Designer
For the last thirty years, the name of Barry Spanier has been
associated with innovation and development in the world of windsurfing
and sailing.
Beginning with his earliest efforts in 1980 as a partner in MauiSails,
one of the original windsurfing companies on the Hawaiian Islands,
Barry has come up with basic concepts and performance advances which
have led the industry. The hip harness, true eccentric cams,
vertical/horizontal sail architecture with mixed materials, levered
batten tensioners, the RAF sail system, and a host of minor
innovations, fill his list of accomplishments.
In addition, sails of his design also were used by a variety of
individuals, men and women, to gain World Sailing Speed records,
including the famous effort by Fred Haywood at Weymouth, England, in
1983 (30.83 knots), and most recently, Martin van Muers first-over-fifty GPS time. Barry also built all the sails used by Russell
Long's Longshot , an exotic hydrofoil trimaran with paired wing sails.
Longshot still holds several of the current world records.
From 1989 until present, Barry was responsible for the design of sails
used to capture ten consecutive Professional Windsurfing Association
(P.W.A.) Overall World Championships, and eleven total. In 2001, sails
of his design were used to win the International Formula Class World
Championship (Kevin Pritchard) as well as the Masters and Junior
divisions.
Currently, he is living and working on his home island of Maui, serving
as the Head Sail Designer for MauiSails, an internationally
recognized competition group. He also presides over a web
based forum which is part of an overall web presence that receives in
excess of one million hits per month. His sage advice and council
ranges from how-to rigging and tuning, to general observations about
the sport and its participants.
He is on the Board of Directors of Cislunar Aerospace, Inc. and serves
as a consultant on several projects related to sailing and windsurfing
sports medicine and aero/hydrodynamics, using modern computer science
and computational fluid dynamics.
He is an accomplished ocean navigator and boat builder, and has spent
many years cruising the Pacific on a thirty-eight foot vessel of his own
design and construction, and counts those vagabond years as some of the
best of his life. Barry also has a passion for writing which extends to
screenplays and short stories, and he expects someday to be involved in
serious film making.
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