Hi guys,
someone should have got some session already with the new sails.
Looking forward for some feedback...
Thx
Last week I received my 2014 KA Race quiver (5.5 to 7.9). The first thing noticed is how modern and appealing they look. The lads have done a great job on the aesthetics and have put a lot of detail into the design.
I have used both the 7.9 and 7.1 once each. First impression on the water is that they feel much lighter in use than last years KA Race. Easy to rig, nice rotation, and light handling. Power is nice and low and easy to handle. I have only had sessions across the wind on a short and tight course, but noticed that the sail has plenty of grunt and is fast across the wind. Once I have had more TOW and have stretched them in I will post a more comprehensive review along with some happy snaps.
Hi w100. Well obviously being part of the design team my opinion is going to be completely coloured so you can take it or leave it but I will try to be as objective as possible.
I have been messing around with early prototypes and pre-production samples for a while and only got my production sails a week ago also. Last weekend we had 2 days at Sandy Point so I got a chance to use a few.
On the Sunday it was quite windy so I rigged a 5.5 KA Race and a 5.0 Koncept. Both sails rigged well out of the bag on the correct KA masts, the Race on a 400 SDM and the Koncept on a 370 RDM. Unfortunately the wind wasn't strong enough for me to try the 5.0 and I spent the whole day on the 5.5 Race. I liked it a lot, it feels lighter than last years, its powerful and very well balanced. The new cams we have this year have improved the rotation greatly. The cams were a touch tight for the first couple of runs but as soon as they bedded in the cam pressure was spot on. After a few sails I may have to add a spacer as the sail stretches in a bit. I didn't do any startling speeds on my speed board, totally related to the unfit old fart standing on it who spends way too much time behind a computer. I got a bit frustrated getting the speed board going behind the sand dunes so grabbed the new 70 wide Prototype Slalom board off the car. A bit of a weird combo that board with a 5.5 but I was way impressed when I pushed it easily to a 39.98 peak. The sail works, no doubt about that.
On the Monday the wind was light so I rigged an 8.5 Koncept and a 7.9 Race. I started on the Koncept but found there was actually more wind than I thought and was a bit overpowered. The cams on this sail were a touch tight, the rotation was stiff. It will loosen up after a couple of uses and be perfect though.
I came back and grabbed the 7.9 Race and spent the rest of the day on that. Like the 5.5 I found it powerful and balanced. It felt very slippery when I was sailing and it rotated just great. Very happy
Are the sails perfect, well of-course not, we can always do better, but they are bloody good.
Yesterday I spent the arvo on Port Phillip Bay on my freestyle wave board and a 5.8 Kult freeride / bump and jump sail. I would have to say screw all this Race/ GPS BS, I had an absolute ball just blasting around in the chop /waves, pulling some nice gybes and generally being a bit of a d..head. Great fun and the sail was superb. If you want an all round fun, powerful, stable B&J sail, this is the best Kult we have ever made, nailed it !!!
Hi there,no more feeds about the race? Maybe now Peter w could post his feeling as well...
Guess it would be interesting also to read his findings compared to his old sails..
W100, I will talk to Peter and try to get you some feedback from the euro guys. He is in Teneriffe with all the Euro Dealers this week so they will all be testing.
Ben and Jesper been using the sails as well so will try to get them to comment and Peter Volwater has been using them a lot over the last few weeks. I got an email from him the other day and he is really pleased with the sails. Apart from Adam, Tony and Spotty there are not that many other people in OZ using the 2014's but will try to get all to post some comments.
I have spend sometime on the 6.3, 7.1 and 7.9 in the last couple of weeks. Really liking them. They do feel lighter than the 2013,s and the cam rotation is way better. Fast and slippery is how I would describe them. 6.3 an especial favorite, had a great sail on that and Stuarts Cheeky Monkey 92 liter Slalom board. They are quite powerful and pump onto the plane in very little wind. I have an adjustable outhaul on the boom I use on all 3 of these and find it great as I can tune on the go for upwind, downwind and its especially goo in gusty conditions. The wind range seems quite large and with the sail downhauled with lots of twist you can just play with the outhaul to power up or depower.
Hey w100. Sorry I hadn't posted an update earlier.
I am loving my 2014 KA RACE quiver. In the last few months I have used the 7.9 and 7.1 quite a few times, and the 6.3 once. I really like the light handling of the sails which means less man handling in gybes and longer sessions all up. This is a big advantage with the 7.9 because sails of that size are usually unappealing to me due to the shear weight and effort required, but the 7.9 sits really well on my falcon 113 and feels like the weight and handling of last years 7.1m RACE, so I am liking sailing the bigger sails again now.
My favourite of the three so far has been the 7.1, which works so nice on my Falcon 113 with a smaller fin, and Falcon 79 (on smooth water). I haven't had any of the sails fully lit yet, all sessions have been comfortably powered, and yet I have still had two entries in my top five in 2sec and 5x10 on the GPSTC as well as an alpha PB, all on the 7.1. So I feel that these sails are quite fast. We have not had a lot of luck at our speed sailing spot with wind strength since I have had the new quiver, but I am fired up about getting a good day on the 7.1 or 6.3 given my experience on the sails so far.
From a cosmetic viewpoint, I was initially worried about the white mast sleeve getting muddy/dirty or grass stained whilst rigging, but as Mr.Love explained to me before purchase, the material is designed to be stain resistant - which has worked exceptionally well so far as the sails are still relatively clean for where I rig. I still really like the fresh look of the sails and that impression hasn't left me yet. The white on the top of the sail is actually opaque at the right angle - cool materials have been used on the luff and foot too. Besides the solid build quality, there has also been a lot of attention to detail which you notice little things when rigging each time, like the hole in the mastpad for the uphaul connection to the foot of the mast, the fade in colour across the battens, the quality and bold design of the screenprinting on the sail etc etc.
I have found the sail easy to rig and tune, and the dimensions on the sail are pretty well where you rig it to. The rotation is smooth and the power locked in low with that slippery feeling up top which is hard to describe in words but easy to feel when on the water. I am happy that I made the move for sure. I will post another update when we get some cracking wind and I get a really lit up session on the 7.1 or 6.3 or if I am lucky enough, the 5.5.
Thank you. Wonder how's the big sizes low end and pull and what kind of mast curve is recommended (CC or FT).
w100, 7.9m is as big as I choose to go, any less wind and I will go and do chores and save my sailing coupons for better days. So if you consider 7.9 a big sail, then I am happy to report that the low down grunt is really nice. I leave the downhaul on the recommended setting and release the outhaul a bit (adjustable outhaul) when it is light and she pumps my Falcon 113 on the plane and keeps her on the plane in gusty and marginal conditions with a 40cm Meanline plugged in. When the wind picks up and the sail is adequately powered I pull the outhaul on a little for across the wind or upwind and she has the low down torque to get the board and and running quickly. Like I said above, the lighter feel of the sail has opened up sailing sails of this size again for me, but the lighter feel when sailing is not at the expense of the low down grunt and acceleration that you would expect from a fully cambered race sail
My understanding is that KA put a lot of work into getting their CC masts just the way they wanted them, so I would suggest pairing your KA sails with the mast that they are designed for. In saying that I know a couple of guys using their Koncepts on Ezzy and Hot Sails masts with success, noting that these masts according to the Unifibre website are also CC. The KA masts are not expensive compared with what you pay for other brands, so if you are buying a mast dont overlook the KA Mast.
Hi W100,
I have had quite a bit of involvement over the years giving input into the design of the KA Koncepts. I am a team rider by choice as I love being involved in the development process. In 2013 I was even more involved testing prototypes and suggesting improvements. I had a very good feeling about the changes we made to the actual sail shape after testing the protos, but I was nervous when we got the first production sails out of the loft when we arrived at Luderitz in Namibia for the Speed Challenge in October.
When we unpacked and rigged the sails I was amazed at how good they looked with the new graphics, but more importantly to me, the shape was spot on the design brief. Over the next few days we had extreme conditions even for speed sailing, in a place that was very daunting and very different from our usual speed course. First day, 35-40 knots, very gusty and the narrow, broad course put a premium on smooth, powerful, forgiving sail handling.
Second day was 40-50 knots with gusts close to 60 and I admit I was s***ing myself when I turned the corner on the first run and felt like I was going to be hauled over the front and slam dunked! I instantly realized there was no option but to hang on and hope I got to the end. There is no way to stop, you can't bail out without hitting the bank and losing your whole rig in the wind (we saw sails attached to boards cartwheeling 15m into the air and going hundreds of meters downwind when they got loose). I was sure I wouldn't survive to the end, but somehow I did. It also resulted in PB's for 2 sec, 10 sec and 500m! I am pretty certain that I only survived because that 5.0m sail was so stable and forgiving!
The sail (5.0m) gave me huge confidence and had rock solid stability in 40-50+ knots gusts!! It completely blew me away! Well.....actually, it stopped me from being blown away...but you know what I mean. 
So, this years Koncepts from 4.2m to 6.2m have more shape down low with more progressive twist up top. They are extremely stable yet have a soft, forgiving, light feeling.
I found myself using the 5.4m last Monday in 30-35 knots WSW where I would have previously gone for the 5m, and feeling very in control and fast.It was my third or fourth best 2 sec at 46.3 Knots in less wind than any previously.
Then on Thursday on 20-25 knots of Easterly wind I used the same 5.4m sail and did one of my best Alphas @ 26.54. The sail was rigged with about 1cm less down-haul and a touch less out-haul and felt absolutely fantastic across the wind pulling 32-33 knots, about as fast as I have gone at that angle, and previously that was with the 5.0m Koncepts!
So far this summer I have sailed the 4.6m, 5.0m, 5.4m, 5.8m, 6.2m and 7.5m 2014 Koncepts and every one of them feels really quick and a dream to handle. All, from the 6.2m down, rigged on RDM masts.
I also had a couple of runs on Tony's 6.3m Race at Luderitz in the canal when the wind was really light (only 30 knots!) and I was amazed at how smooth and light it felt on my 40cm wide speed board!
Cheers, Andrew Daff
Hi All,
I have the 6.3, 7.1 and 7.9 2014 Race. I use them as the big speed sail options to compliment my 5.0,5.4 and 5.8 2014 Koncepts. At the Luderitz Speed Event I took the 5.0,5.4,5.8 and the 6.3 race. I had the pleasure of using the 6.3 Race on day 1 in around 30 knots and broke the Aus record bringing it up to 43.5 knots (500m vid time) and a peak of 46 knots. . The sail felt incredible light and stable. The course at Luderitz is incredibly broad and gusty but the Race performed awesomely. Previously I had always had the 6.6 Koncept and also had some great results on it too. I like the extra cam in the Race in the bigger size sails (Koncept has 3 cams , Race has 4) especially as I usually sail them overpowered.
I haven't used the 6.3 since returning but have mainly used the 7.1 and 7.9. They both share the incredible control and stability of the 6.3. You need to constantly remind yourself that the sail is actually as big as it is, as they feel so light and controllable. The other day at Swan Bay I used the 7.1 in very frontal gusty conditions and 40 knot runs were a breeze on the 55 cm Mistral Speed. The 7.9 is my light wind sail on the F2 Rx133 and I mainly use it in 15-25 knot sea breezes. once again it pumps up beautifully and powers through the lulls nicely. It also works well on the Mistral 55 ( 95 litre) and has done many 39 knot runs.
In Luderitz I also tried a proto 5.2 race which also felt awesome. It was similar to the 5.4 Koncept but maybe a bit more ridged.
Choice of Race over Koncept is a personal one and is also a choice that many sail companies don't offer. For me its the Koncept in smaller sizes and Race in larger. Some guys prefer the opposite.... Personal choice. Both super fast and competitive... and fun!!!!
Overall I am ecstatic with the 2014 Race.
Cheers Tony Wynhoven
KA Speed Team
would you recommend those two sails for upwind racing and using in moderate to heavy chop ?
I am pretty confident you would find the KA Race more suited to upwind racing in the larger sizes on a Slalom/Race type board. That is it's much more its design brief, and the few times I have used the KA race sizes they seem to have a significant advantage over the Koncepts upwind.
A few guys on 2014 kaRace in the LOC Saturday. Peter Volwater was 3rd on an 8.7, Jesper 4th ( not sure what size) The feedback from Peter was that he was very happy with his speed. Spotti also on an 8.7, the big fella struggled to get going at the start but once planing he made up ground. The text he sent me was " The sail is SWEEEET"
Well done guys, and well done to Steve for a great win.
With Severne 1st and 2nd, KA 3rd and 4th and Severne 5th Aussie designed sails dominated, very cool!!!
i just had one session with my 2014 7.9 race and i am very happy with it, i read that it would be lighter in the hands and it defenitly is !! feels very balanced. dont know if its optical but it looks to me that the sleeve is a little bit wider? and the lower part a bit deeper profile? Hmm maybe gonne change my 7.1 race also .. and 6.3 ... or the 8.7 ... difficult.
