One of the best ideas seen at Yacht Research Unit

"This is one of the best ideas I've seen for a while," said David Le Pelley, manager of the Yacht Research Unit at The University of Auckland, "and we see and test a lot of products here at the facility."

"We wanted to put the Packasigns through their paces," said Packaworld head, Pete Roberts, "and what better place to do it than at one of world's leading research centres for yacht design. We're happy with the results and collected some valuable data which will go into enhancing the design of the product."

The original Twisted Flow Wind Tunnel was built in 1994 by the University of Auckland in conjunction with North Sails NZ and Team New Zealand.

The wind tunnel has been used mainly for downwind sail testing. The testing carried out by Team New Zealand was instrumental in their victory in the 1995 America's Cup and successful defence in 2000.

The wind tunnel was then taken over entirely by the University of Auckland's Yacht Research Unit as a commerical and research facility.