I have a Servene Fox 105L and a 7.2m sail but I really want to go in 12 to 15kts. Went out the other day and there just wasn't enough.
Should I go to 8 or 9m? Don't want to end up with 4 sails
Any ideas
Thanks
Peter
Depends what your board will take . My 105 rocket , 7.0 is the biggest it will carry , but a 8,5 on a 116-120 plus litre board will get you there,
For a board that is 65cm wide even a sail around 7.6-7.8 is going to feel big and heavy. I wouldn't recommend anything bigger.
I would look at a larger board. Or get into foiling.
I have cheerfully used 8.2s, both cam and no-cam, on my Fox 105- they have been fine and fun. In 13-15 knots I tend to use an overdrive 7.8 which matches the board well. I don't think I'd use a 9 with it, , low 8s are a reasonable maximum but 7.8 seems to be a great choice. Hope that helps!
Find a fuller, lighter, less twisted sail that has more shape higher up. - More like a raceboard sail.
It will most likely/almost certainly have a narrower range on the top end. But if you only have 13-16 knots, that won't matter as much.
As much as the development of modern Freeride/Slalom/Race sails has progressed, and they HAVE progressed a LOT, it has been at the expense of needing to carry a much larger sail area, and the extra weight that comes with it.
I seem to remember that at least one of the windsurfing sailmakers specifically designed and marketed such a sail for this very purpose a few years ago, but I can't remember who it was.
Not sure a lightweight benefits more than 2 mph wind speeds over foiling.
For sure, heavyweights reap huge advantages with foiling, as much as 6 mph breezes.
My first thought would be to try a larger fin. I have run a 38 on the 105 and that helped with a camless 7.5 rigged but maybe a 42 would be ok. In the end the narrow tail might be limiting though I think the Fox responds really well to good pumping technique.
Interesting question.
The old school answer is to go for a bigger rig and see what happens. If you can't plane on a 7.2m on a 105 litre board then my advice would be to look at a 7.8 rig. That's usually about the biggest you can set happily on a 460 mast.
Once you get into 8m rigs or bigger this often means buying another mast, and maybe a longer boom. The weight of the rig then often outweighs the benefits of extra sail size.
The 105 Fox should happily take up to a 7.8 (according to the Severne site) but for bigger sails you'd want a bigger board.
Lightwind sailing is about several things.:
1) Is it really windy enough to plane, or are you kidding yourself about the wind strength and should be doing other things?
2) You don't mention body weight and lightweight sailors usually plane in lighter winds than the heavier guys.
3) The best light wind planers tend to be slalom boards, with width being important when carrying larger floppy-leech rigs.
4) If you like turning more than blasting, then the best light wind early planers are freestyle boards, and it's amazing what you can do with a 64cms-wide freestyle board rigged with just a 5,2 rig, set with a tight leech.
5) Some of us find that big sails aren't much fun. Big sails on boards that are a bit small are even less fun.
6) Foiling is often the new answer to lighter winds, and even a relatively small sail will work with a foil - maybe where you pump the foil and not the sail. But of course that's a different sport.
7) Another light wind watersport is to stick a modest sail on your SUP board and glide around on that.
8) If you regularly get these marginal / 15knot days then it's worth working out which sort of kit best suits you for those conditions.