Taking longboard Mistral Equipe aka MEQ up north to chalet basement today - outlaws have some chalets with space = lucky me. Bringing my winter sleds back down home - have one for the snow and another for the ice.
Was also going through my sails and was wondering if my newly acquired HSM SPF 8.5 could be used on snow n ice. Apparently the PVC window is fragile in the cold. That's a pisser :-( NEVER thought to check that when i purchased it... My MS-2 8.0 is way too busted up to even consider winter activity and the TR-4 8.4 is just too precious = "my precious" done in the voice of Gollum from Lord of the Rings :-)
In any case, I found a 2007 Sailworks / SW Retro 8.0 for about $200 at 2-rad. Bruno marked it as A+ and owner from Gatineau marked it as B+. With the small crinkles near the top of the luff, I will give it a B+ while the rest was A+ with lotsa life left in it.
and another angle on the sail:
Bruce Peterson now has a clip on youtube on the proper rigging of the SailWorks Retro:
Now, back to winter windsurfing ...
Here's an old clip with the Maui Sails MS-2 8-oh. It was light wind and not so fast. To make it more interesting, it was sped up and some "futuristic" sounds that are supposed to be music? added.
The sled in that video was the ice sled. On the ice such a large sail is ONLY used in very light winds !! Mostly such a large sail is used on the snow sled. The version I am using this year is as follows:
My snow sled is loosely based on the race sled used by Langis Carron who used to race cars and then started racing in the snow at WISSA events and did well !!
Since there was discussion about a hard top mast and sail slated to be constant curve/CC on iwindsurf ...
http://iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29450 & http://iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29457
I decided to try my NP 490/90% mast on the SW retro discussed earlier in this post. The issue was that the hard top/HT mast seemed to create a looser leech rather than a tighter leech - even with less downhaul. This is based on the photo earlier in this post and multiple riggings... Here is a photo of the NP flextop/FT mast in the SW Retro 8-oh. Same 10 cm downhaul and 40 + 180 cm outhaul as the HT mast.
Ok the leech looks loose, but upon careful examination this happens above the SW "cog" indicator. Before putting the outhaul, the battens pushed hard against the end of their respective sleeves. With the outhaul at 40 + 180 cm the battens actually seemed better than with the HT mast. The 10 cm downhaul was also taken down to about 7/8 cm and not the full 10 - just like the MS mast. And so, decided to take it out on the ice n snow for a spin. Will post the video once uploaded to YouTube...
Here is one video sample with the SW Retro 8-oh on the snow using the NP mast:
Was also going through my sails and was wondering if my newly acquired HSM SPF 8.5 could be used on snow n ice. Apparently the PVC window is fragile in the cold. That's a pisser :-( NEVER thought to check that when i purchased it... My MS-2 8.0 is way too busted up to even consider winter activity and the TR-4 8.4 is just too precious = "my precious" done in the voice of Gollum from Lord of the Rings :-)
In any case, I found a 2007 Sailworks / SW Retro 8.0 for about $200 at 2-rad. Bruno marked it as A+ and owner from Gatineau marked it as B+. With the small crinkles near the top of the luff, I will give it a B+ while the rest was A+ with lotsa life left in it.
I rigged it with my MauiSails SDM 490cm/75% carbon mast. Bruce Peterson has stated this should work fine.The sail is marked as luff of 501-505 and boom of 219-223. Put the downhaul at 490+12.5 = 502.5 and outhaul at 180+40=220 cm. This sail requires more downhaul than ANY I have ever rigged. What i mean by that is usually there is about 5 to 10 cm of rope left to pull with a tool ie before I cannot pull easily with my hand(s). This sail had about 20 to 30 cm of downhaul to go. The mast is hard top and the sail constant curve. Needed to tighten the battens a little bit - tool is on the sail and put more outhaul - another 2.5 cm to make the battens get around the mast - for switching sides. Also, I did NOT downhaul all the way - was already enough leech and bend in mast. Next time try 10 cm on mast extension - all the way and see how much outhaul is required for battens to be good. (10 cm at base and 40 at boom next time)
Obviously uphauled the sail and yanked on it to see power and flip to other side. This sail is VERY powerful and I will need to be VERY careful on snow n ice. People are saying I need LESS sail in winter and this is true, but i also go out in lighter winds. ANY slight breeze and one can fly on the ice !! Snow can be VERY resistant and as such requires bigger sails. This sail can be used on snow up to 30 kph winds - as long as snow is NOT crusty - that approaches ice speeds. On the ice I have used 8.x sails in winds under 20 kph - as low as 10 kph !!! Just gliding along and smiling...
Will post more pics of sail when my camera battery has charged %^&*(
Interestingly enough, this sail goes into the bag clew first or what i call head first. Perhaps that is how the top of the sail got crinkled ? Person stood sail on clew head while placing in bag ??
About 5 cm not hauled with 502.5 setting:
Here is the crinkly top of the sail:
and another angle on the sail:
Bruce Peterson now has a clip on youtube on the proper rigging of the SailWorks Retro:
Now, back to winter windsurfing ...
Here's an old clip with the Maui Sails MS-2 8-oh. It was light wind and not so fast. To make it more interesting, it was sped up and some "futuristic" sounds that are supposed to be music? added.
The sled in that video was the ice sled. On the ice such a large sail is ONLY used in very light winds !! Mostly such a large sail is used on the snow sled. The version I am using this year is as follows:
My snow sled is loosely based on the race sled used by Langis Carron who used to race cars and then started racing in the snow at WISSA events and did well !!
Since there was discussion about a hard top mast and sail slated to be constant curve/CC on iwindsurf ...
http://iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29450 & http://iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=29457
I decided to try my NP 490/90% mast on the SW retro discussed earlier in this post. The issue was that the hard top/HT mast seemed to create a looser leech rather than a tighter leech - even with less downhaul. This is based on the photo earlier in this post and multiple riggings... Here is a photo of the NP flextop/FT mast in the SW Retro 8-oh. Same 10 cm downhaul and 40 + 180 cm outhaul as the HT mast.
Ok the leech looks loose, but upon careful examination this happens above the SW "cog" indicator. Before putting the outhaul, the battens pushed hard against the end of their respective sleeves. With the outhaul at 40 + 180 cm the battens actually seemed better than with the HT mast. The 10 cm downhaul was also taken down to about 7/8 cm and not the full 10 - just like the MS mast. And so, decided to take it out on the ice n snow for a spin. Will post the video once uploaded to YouTube...
Here is one video sample with the SW Retro 8-oh on the snow using the NP mast:
In December of 2023 I broke the strap at the top of the luff sleeve...
Thus, in FEB2024 I decided to toss sail in the garbage and this is the skeleton:
and I still have the key lol
This post on the SailWorks webpage explains the parts of the batten :
and has this wonderful pic with labelling :
Hi Joe, enjoy your blog. I want your advice. I currently sail a 2006 Starboard GO 185 with a 2007 Sailworks Retro 8.5. I was thinking about getting a JP SLW strictly for early planing. Do you think it would improve the light wind performance with the 8.5 over the GO board?
ReplyDeleteFYI, i'm 190 lbs intermediate, sail a lake in Alberta. My next size down is 7.0 Retro with JP Xcite ride
thanks
waveslayer879@gmail.com
i answered via e-mail. Here is an excerpt:
DeleteTo improve planing with that 8.5 Retro sail - try the cheapest option.
Keep the board and try a stiffer, longer fin.
A used fin usually runs around $100.
This NOT an expensive experiment.
The only downside is the fin forces one to stay further out.