Windsurf · Wide board revival
1998
Formula racing on wide boards
In Brest the first Formula contest is sailed on short, wide boards with big sails; by 2001 it is an international class.
12.5m²
Largest Formula sail, on boards up to 1 metre wide
On 24 March 1998 the twenty best French funboard sailors met in Brest for a new kind of race. Erik Thieme won it on a board of 2.75 metres with a 10 square metre sail.
The format spread quickly. The first Formula world championship was held in Belgium in 1999 and won by Wojtek Brzozowski of Poland, and in 2001 the International Sailing Federation adopted Formula Windsurfing as an international class.
Formula was built around short, wide production boards and big sails. The rules allowed one production board, no wider than 1.005 metres, three sails of up to 12.5 square metres and, until 2011, three fins. Formula ran in parallel with the wide boards aimed at bringing beginners back to the sport at the end of the decade.