Is the Mistral class more athletically demanding than other sailing classes?
Oh yeah. Definitely. In sailing, they have strict rules about kinetics, how you can move your body to affect the sails. In windsurfing, what we call “pumping” is completely unlimited. There’s no rule regarding pumping. We use our bodies to pull the sail into the wind and create artificial wind, sort of like a rower moving an oar through the water. That makes our sport really physical. 3. How does it compare in terms of tactics to an America’s Cup race? An America’s Cup race is two boats, one-on-one. Ours is what they call fleet racing. There can be anyone where from 35 to 100 boards on one racecourse at the same time. With our races, there’s a lot more action because you’re always in close proximity with five, 10, 20 other windsurfers. The course we sail is about the same. They set up a series of buoys, and you go around the buoys in a similar way. So is part of the strategy catching wind and trying to block wind from others? It’s pretty much the same. It’s kind of complicated to expla
