After years of trying my best to destroy my 7m Cheetah I thought it was timely to pick up a new one before the next shipment on the new weaker AU$ ,didn't have to upgrade but seeing the trend for 2016 prices I hedged my bet!
First impressions of the 2015, oozed build quality the moment you unroll it, as most new sails do I guess, but as always with Ezzy, the attention detail is spot on no flaws, features in the sail that you can see have been carefully thought about, reinforced protection at the key areas a nice decent size boom cutout to get your boom in place quickly without hassle of a tight sleeve and cut out.
When your time poor and rushing for a quick blast, the last thing you need is frigging around with a sail that must of been designed by people with pencils for fingers, you want a sail that is easy to sleeve the mast in, clamp the boom on, set it to the setting that are so clearly marked, and away you go, easy, love it!
The sail is pre rigged and set in the factory and personally signed off for QA, by the person who rigged it back in Sri Lanka.
If you haven't read the 'ezzy sail story' you can here, and also about the foundation www.ezzy.com/company/ezzy-foundation/ then ask yourself does the sail you purchase contributes back to its local community in anyway? It's a good story.
Rigging wise, this one was not 100% perfect the first time, the bottom battens were sticking a bit and a couple of small crease/wrinkles were concerning me, a few snap shots of the issues, email to Ezzy and an extremely detailed and educational answer and solution was given to my concerns, by the man himself, next day! That email taught me so much about sails, was amazing!
Tweaked a couple of adjustments as directed and perfect set looking good, every comment that he said about the sail and what it would do and when with regards to set, profile, look etc was 100% spot on, when he talks about his sails it's like they are his children, he knows every mm of them and their behaviours, impressive to say the least.
I've had it a few weeks now and have covered everything from 12-28knts, from flat water, to mostly open water off beach sailing constant and gusty conditions so it's had a good work out and test, simply it's awesome, stable, fast, gybes easily, great wind range, never overpowered.
The '15 sets flatter in the belly than the older models but that doesn't seem to impact bottom end, on the light days simply back off the down and outhaul a bit and you have a powerful light wind sail that pumps onto the plane really easily.
Where it's at its best though is in fully powered conditions, conditions you would expect to be overpowered in. Just crank downhaul to max and same for outhaul, not only does this ensure a stable profile, no back hand pressure but seems to add 20% of speed to the table, in these condition's it excels, fast and totally controllable.
The '15 leech is tighter than previous model, gives the impression it would achieve higher top end speeds. The Xply construction and build quality give you plenty of confidence to head out through the surf and explore the open waters at speed. Just like its predecessor the wind range with some tuning is massive,
I've taken this out in crappy 10-18knts winds and had great open water sessions, and then I've done some serious powered up ocean blasting in 16-25/28 gusts and never felt out of control, just need to crank on the down/out to max and it's a high wind machine.
At full speed the head twists off nicely in the gusts but not as extreme as the previous model, which again helped with the impression that this sail was faster, I have no actual proof that it is I'm afraid!
The '15 feels lighter both on and off the water, certainly lighter in the hands when sailing, if it is 'actually' and lighter than the older model I haven't checked, just feels that way.
In choppy water and ocean sailing the sail feels 'alive' and lets you control the power as you need it, you never feel like you are fighting the sail..the faster you go the better it feels. What else is there to say, build quality, easy to rig, easy to sail yet still high performance, good looking, choice of really nice colours, massive wind range, well priced.
For no cam freeride/race sails the Ezzy Cheetah has still got to be the leader in the pack, there may be a couple that potentially 'may' (I say 'may' because I only think that in dead flat water) are more likely to set higher top end speeds in smooth flat water, but they fall short in range/useability and durability. Now that this is done and said and purchased I see there is a new 2016 model coming out! Grrrrr!
Agree totally with your review, I updated to a 7m Cheetah earlier this year and it was my 1st Ezzy purchase. I only had to try my mate's 7m cheetah out for an hour in 15-22 knots and I was ordering one the next day.
Since then I have purchased a few more Ezzy's and always amazed that David Ezzy will reply back within 24 hours with an answer to any question I have.
Also like the way you can rig and derig an Ezzy without feeling like you are destroying the sail.
Great point about the rig/de rig also...no crunchy crunchy, crease business!
So many places where you sail there are tress, rough ground, fences whatever, not saying you won't puncture the Xply with brushes against such, but generally it handles a fair bit where as monofilm slices like butter. My local involves walk up stairs through some trees etc, always a bit of bouncing around going on.
My old one had a discussion with some rocks under the waves..punctured a hole near the clew, but the threads in the xply just held it all in place, I actually sailed the session didn't realise it had a puncture until later!
There is a lot to be set about all the thread/ply type sails, ezzy are not alone in the technology, all the sails that I have seen with thread/ply through them all ooze a extra level of robustness.
ALWAYS wanted to try EZZY, but shy away from "any mast will do" discussion
having had mast issues in the past - there is an ideal mast - EZZY or other ...
do you use RDM or SDM and Ezzy masts ??
my 460 RDM is pretty flextop - okay 4 Ezzy ??
can go to mast tables, but prefer user input
my 490s are hard top and constant curve SDMs
and will they work on a larger Ezzy WELL ??
thx
The ezzy website has loads of information on mast compatibility but basically Ezzy sails are designed for constant curve masts though according to to the man himself they work well with flex top masts but not so good with hard top masts.
Shoot David Ezzy an email and you will get thorough advice.
Interesting. I have Tushingham X15s, with flex top masts. while I like these sails, they're getting harder to find. previously had Ezzy Infinity and KA Koncepts and liked both. whats the top end of the Cheetah like vs the Lion (or NCX or Koncept)?
Thinking about my next sail, came across this review and followed the link to Ezzy Foundation. Think I just found my new favourite brand.
