I bought a Severne NCX to replace a full on racing sail. Don't have the Severne mast, so I have to make it work on a constant curve rdm. Therefore the specs do not provide much guidance.
Sail seems to be dragging at the top end of the range. Can I downhaul this sail so much that the battens are no longer touching the mast, or do they become unstable that way?
Do I need to use some outhaul or is neutral fine?
Thanks in advance!
It's a 2014. If I like it I will probably get a whole quiver and matching masts (2015/2016). At the low wind range the sail is great. It's at the extreme high end (when others are out on same size race sails) when it starts to drag. I was just wondering whether I can make them work with so much downhaul that the battens do not touch the mast anymore or that I should just rig one size smaller. Overall I'm very impressed by the performance.
Go for it. You can give the NCX quite a bit of downhaul. What happens when you reach the max downhaul on a sail is they get a little twitchy. To combat that you can let a little bit of outhaul off to keep the shape in the sail. These no-cam sails are fantastic but they need a little bit of shape so you can't flatten them out too much.
Just go and add 1cm of downhaul then hit the water and see what it's like then add another 5mm ... you'll reach a point that it eventually starts feeling twitchy and unstable so back it off from there.
Thanks Sean. So it doesn't matter if the battens don't touch the mast anymore? (I don't know/understand where the stability in a raf sail comes from). Plenty of shape in the sail. More than enough for some extra downhaul. How does it handle negative outhaul? Go/no go?
I have used these sails a bit, I would rig it to the measurements on the sail, Severne are pretty spot on with the measurements printed on the sails.
If your overpowered go 1 hole more on the downhaul and 1 on the out haul, It would be hard to gauge sail setting buy the rotation on the mast using an RDM as the mast is almost half the size. If you jut keep cranking downhaul the sail will start to feel horrid and kill the bottom end power of the sail which is awesome in these sails, and will move the foil and power back along the boom. If you are feeling drag when pretty much over powered just change down a sail size which would be faster anyway, on a non cambered sails you will most likely be a size or 2 smaller than a cambered sail in the same wind.
Thanks! Had perfect conditions today to test the sail and your advice seems to be spot on. I pretty much was planing the whole day with a nice average speed and the guys with the race sails one size bigger were having problems to get planing, but had better vmax. The problem with a gps is that I focus on the max, so I just left the gps in the car and just enjoyed a perfect day. And the NCX is just perfect for that. One of my best sessions of the year. No numbers to proof it, only a smile from ear to ear. I'm most definately going to swap the race sails for a set of NCXs.
are the NCX's as expensive there as they are here ??
then again all sails seem VERY expensive these days
a decent sail seems over $700 CDN now ...
means sail + mast alone is over $1000
no wonder i buy used
NCX never seem to show up used - good sign I am sure !!!
Joe,
Relatively speaking, windsurfing is still very affordable to say road cycling or dinghy sailing. My first windsurfer set me back circa AUD$800 in 1983. I agree with your sentiments regarding buying lightly used second hand or last season's discounted new stock to get on the water economically. p.s. I have a 2014 7.5m NCX - one of the best no cam sails around.
NCX sails used to be on my short list for replacement sails
as stated, they never seem to show up "lightly used" here
my other issue is: the masts
have a few hard top masts - 490 and 520
some sail companies going from 490 to 460 for 8.x sails - my most used size
AND they are going from hard top to constant curve - Severne too
locally there is NO Severne official dealer
was a brand I was willing to switch to ...
both the NCX (for freeride) and the Raceboards sails (for longboard) are of great interest to me
for the Raceboard sail it is extremely important to get the right mast
glad you guys are all loving these sails and encouraging me/us to take a good look
cheers
