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acalhounguy
Joined: 25 May 2013 Posts: 57
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 4:55 pm Post subject: |
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Depends on whether you are planning a quiver (which I never really did) or are just looking for the best sails to pair with your board and what you are looking to do. 7.0 to 8.0 is a sweet spot for the WindSup for flat-water planing performance.
I sailed my 11'8" this past weekend with a 5.4 in sub-planing conditions and it was easy fun. You'd need a lot of wind to plane with the 5.5 and the board would be outside of its best range (except maybe in surf - I'm talking about lake conditions).
For planing conditions with the 11'8" I think my Ezzy Lion 7.5 is about perfect and I don't think it is too big a step from the 5.5 honestly although at some point you might want a 6.5 to fill the gap. A cheetah would be as good or better and a comparable sail would be a Sailworks Retro.
The problem with buying a 6.5 next is that you haven't gained much range. If starting with a 5.5M my next purchase would be 7.5 and then 9.5 followed by sails in-between. (my current quiver is 5.4, 6.4, 7.5, 9.5, 12.0)
The Zephyr is a fine sail if you are a dedicated long-board sailor. I'd go for the cheetah (or legacy) from Ezzy as it might pair better with a freeride board. Nothing wrong with Gaastra either but I haven't had a chance to use their products. The softness of the Ezzys with the deep belly in the Cheetah/Lion I think pairs well with a long-board. |
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ctuna
Joined: 27 Jun 1995 Posts: 1126 Location: Santa Cruz Ca
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 12:28 am Post subject: Where do you sail what are your goals. |
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Where do you sail what are your goals.
How many days a year do you plan on sailing in what conditions?
What sails are other people using in your area?
What size boards are they using?
What size sails are they using.
What is your weight ?
Do you live in an area where the common sail range is below
6.0 or above it?
If you really want to do planning windsurfing I would be looking
at a dedicated windsurfing board which would be much smaller.
You can still learn a lot on the Wind sup though. |
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dhmark
Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 376
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2017 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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Ideal jump is to 7.0.
If not planning any more larger sails then 7.5.
Reasonable economic choice using same mast is 6.5, also very reasonable if you later plan on even larger sail.
Other than having a lot of sails, close spacing usually means less rerigging as you can pick more precisely for a given wind range.
Also sail brands have differing wind ranges for a given size. My Ezzy Zephyr 7.5 extremely different range than Hot Sails Maui Superfreak 7.0, spacing between them is correct for my conditions. Even if there is overlap, I'd rather use the SF 7.0 than the Zephyr rigged for high wind. |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935
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Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 11:38 am Post subject: |
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Don't forget that mixing sail styles, and especially brands, makes sizes much less meaningful. Some brands measure sq meters differently (including the luff sleeve, for example) and sail design can shift a power curve by a sq meter or more. Just one example was Neal Pryde's instructions to rig very big with their newfangled (i.e., flat) "race sail" in the early '90s because it was gutless at the low end. Its emphasis was on low drag at high board speeds rather than more power at low wind and board speeds. A much smaller sail designed for low-end power would plane much sooner yet top out much sooner. The holy grail is a sail design that achieves both objectives, and although the gap is narrowing, it is still substantial.
Then there are the OTHER dozen or so performance factors that affect how a sail (or board, or fin) feels and works relative to our personal criteria. Mongrel "quivers" based on printed sq meters and on Craig's List opportunities often waste more money than they save. |
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