Gear Review- Ledge to Lancelin 2016
Sail: SEVERNE UNIT 7.5m2 2016 - single cam under the boom
Mast: Severne RDM 460, “blue” - 90% carbon
Downhaul: +17cm (foot of mast to sail pulley)
“sail crease” between top two battens ~2/3rd to the mast
Boom: Severne Enigma @ 2.00m, with pulley clip & adj. outhaul
Board: Chris Lockwood/mistral 112 litres
Fin: Chris Lockwood/weed/carbon 275mm deep, 32.5deg rake
Sailor: 68kg, 182cm, 61years
NOTES:
I was lucky, again,
- made the right gear choice
- got a "not too bad start" (Steve Allen was probably at the first mark when I got going....)
=> 80% of the LOC challenge done…
After that I was on the plane all the way and could go lower than all the inside boats, including the run to the finish.
No problem to get going after the gybes, the UNIT has massive “low-end” & pump-response
Generally “under-powered”
- Very little outhaul except for the closer reaches (to marks 3 & 5 when the wind did gust up a little)
- Fully released outhaul on all starboard reaches
Perhaps - I could have gone a little faster with a bigger sail…
Perhaps I could have travelled faster, at times, on the narrower CL/mistral 91 litres,
but,
- may have struggled to get going after the inside gybes, at the start for sure
- I feel that the 91 litre is more efficient and faster, fantastic “glide-ability” - with the same 275mm CL weed fin.
- it would have been a “riskier” choice….
As it happened I really enjoyed the race,
The UNIT 7.5 feels like a 6.5 in the hand
-no under arm cramping
-no gybing issues
-no exhaustion
could concentrate on “staying-on-the-waves”, where to gybe, avoiding kites, cray ropes etc.
…. and got my best finish in a looong time, 20th overall
+ I had a great long weekend!
Hi Bjorn,
Well done on your race performance - that is solid considering your start - you must have been overtaking tons of people on the course.
- I was on 104 litre board, 34cm fin and a 7.5 turbo - set with a little more downhaul than I usually run as i gambled on fresher wind than we got.
However i did have an adjustable outhaul.
I was super comfortable on reaches and had a great start - approx 8th at first mark.
but i couldn't get close to getting downwind far enough to hit the inside boats - i had to sail inshore and extra half k and gybe to make the angle. Had to make 2 extra gybes as well to get downwind far enough for a few marks.
Overall finish was 30th. As usual the race was an absolute blast to do.
Some very interesting performance that you have extracted from that sail!
Sounds like a blast..I have driven past and sailed at lancelin a few times
thinking of next years race ..how serious is the race ..is it for the average sailer looking for a challenge .?
Or is it just for pros.?
I do mostly ocean sailing and do sail for 3 hours in one hit .no stopping ..doing 7 -8 Kms runs out then turn around Come back doing this 4-5 times .I'd like to give it a go.
good to hear the Unit is not only a free ride Sail but also a racer ..
