A bit of Midget Farrelly windsurfing history … 3.3 metre Farrelly Wing sail, personally sailed by Midget in Hawaii. Most of my 10 years of wavesailing was on Farrelly Wing sails. When I phoned him in the early 90s to replace my well-worn 3.3, he had stopped making them. So he said ‘’here, you can have this one’’. Complete with the MF personal Midget Farrelly logo. Very happy to have this collector’s item.
The 3.3 fitted on to a 1 metre boom and a 4.5 metre mast. He only had one mast size. I had several 4.3s which fitted a 125 cm boom and a 5.3 Which fitted a 150 boom. Only ever had the one 5.3, because I didn’t use it very often, always felt too big. The short boom length made them brilliant for tight turns on a wave face. They weren’t much good for straight line speed with max power, but that wasn’t relevant at the time.
While the booms were really short, the sail actually became wider above the boom because of the unique ‘scimitar’ shape of the sail. So they were easier to maintain power despite their small size. When I had a bit of a dabble with ‘’modern’’ sails in recent decades I found a 4.0 North Instinct needed at least as much wind to stay powered as the 3.3 Wing
. Of course what the current crop of wavesailors can do with current sails is a whole other story. But I thought it was worth mentioning a bit of history with the passing of the great man.
Nice gear... then
i did work experience at the age of 16 with Lee Stevens ( surf board and windsurf shaper) in Clifton Beach in 1984.
He shaped my new board that week and set me up with a few Farrelly wing sails/mast. they were certainly out there at the time.
Released if not before the original Neil Pryde RAF. Articles at the time said he was the first.
All modern sails came from this concept.
I was sailing Long Reef when MF came up with these. MF's factory was just down the road at Dee Why so there were a few of these on the water.
They always looked like they performed pretty well. I was using RAF Wave sails at the time and the short booms of those days were just brilliant. It would be really cool to try to sail one now, and see how they compare with the current models...
There was a kid who used to turn up at Long Reef with a McCoy surfboard (as his sailboard) On a trailer on his bicycle. He was so small he could up-haul the McCoy. Midge gave him a tiny version of this Wing Sail, to replace an old bag that he was using. The wing must have been about 2.5 square metres, and this kid carved on it.
A lot of great stories have surfaced since MF 's passed from the mortal plane....one might wonder who the kid on the McCoy was and where he is now...still planing maybe?
