G'day guys, just chasing some advice.
Looking at getting both new slalom and waves sails. Keen on either KA sails or Severne. Wondering if its best to go with one brand for simplicity (if so how are the KA waves sails) or if people mix and match, in which case do they rig on each others gear reasonably.
Cheers
Love my Severnes. The one thing I have done is use my 6.5 NCX (luff length 462)for blasting both waves and flat, the thing I change is the mast, using a 430 gorilla rdm for the waves and enigma 460 SDM for the flat water. The 430 gorilla I also use for the 5.7 blade and the enigma I also use for the 7.5m turbo. I also have a 10m Avanti for being extremely light weight sail. The carbon weave sail material in the Avanti doesn't seem to crinkle either nor stretch. The other thing to keep in mind is the pulley systems on the foot of each sail so that the mast extension matches.
I sail both KA and Severne sails and this is what I've found:
- Severne masts are more 'stiff top' in their bend curve than KA masts, so there may be some differences in performance and rigging if you use, say a Severne mast in a KA sail, or vice versa. I think that the differences would be more pronounced in sails bigger than 6.0, or for masts 460cm or longer where greater variation in the sail luff curve vs mast flex pattern may have a detrimental affect on sail/mast compatibility (I use only Ezzy masts which I'm certain are closer in bend curve to KA masts)
- The downhaul pulleys on KA and Severne sails are aligned differently. Others have said on this forum that they don't find this a problem and can use the same extension with either sail brand, but I have frigged around a lot trying to get one extension to work with both brands (where the download rope doesn't bind) and ended up using a different extension with each brand (Streamlined ext with KA and Aeron ext with Severne)
Stick to the one brand.
Your masts will be ideal for all the sails, and the rigging will be similar which speeds things up and makes it easier to remember settings.
All my KA sails (4.9 - 7.5) use 6cm extension (different masts) and tuning is easy because they all behave similarly.
Last season i decided to try out some KA sails.
I'd previously owned NP sails and still do own 4.5m and 4.8m NP Zones (40th Anniversary)(X65 RDM 370 )
I got a 2013 KA Kaos 5.3m (Chinook RDM 400) and a 2012 KA Kult 5.8m (Hypersonic RDM 430)
I do like both of them and i found i was getting planing easier and early with the KA sails, especially the Kult in 15-20knt bump and jump conditions
This might be to do with my techniques getting gradually better however.
The Kaos is really good. good response and control. I've done 32knt on flat water and also sailed it up at corronation jumping and in avalon waves.
For some reason though i like the small NP sails in high wind. Maybe its the flex top and releasing power better not real sure.
I have a mix of Gaastra and Naish and have gradually been phasing out the Naish sails and Masts. Reason being that I can feel that the sails work better on the masts they were designed with.
I find the Naish masts seem stiffer and that it makes a better combination to match a Naish sail with a softer Gaastra mast than the other way round.
If I was prepared to spend the money, I would get all matching masts and sails, so I'm gradually moving in that direction as sails wear out.
