New Sail Day

Well, after ripping my 5.0m windsurf sail on Sunday I came home and just had to do a bit of Internet shopping! Who knew that brand new sails are in the £700-800 range these days. Oh well, I had to replace the 5.0m and you can’t beat a new sail day.

Brexity issues

I always used to buy my sails from Gun Sails in Germany. They were just as good as any of the bigger name brands, they actually seemed to be built a little better and generally lasted me longer and they were pretty much half the price. Brexit seems to have put an end to that though. The prices are still a little cheaper, but not as much as they were and then there’s all the issues of import taxes, import charges and such like. Not to mention the fact that they might get held up at customs too.

I’ve had no end of problems and additional costs getting things for work through customs so didn’t want to risk it.

Last years Colours

What I did manage to find was some sails from a couple of years ago that were brand new but with a 30% saving on new prices. Yes, they are a couple of years old, yes they might not be in the latest colours but they’ll do me just fine. There haven’t been any huge improvements in sail design over the past few years anyway so they’ll be almost the same as this years latest models. They’ll certainly be an improvement on my sails as they are all quite old now.

Choices

I went for the HD (Heavy Duty) versions. These have no monofilm so have reinforced X-Ply all over the sail. This should make them a little stronger. Not a bad thing around here. It does make them a little heavier but I can put up with that.

I needed a 5m to replace the one I’d ripped and my 4.5m was pretty old too so I decided to get a 4.5m while I was at it. There wasn’t a huge amount of choice once I’d decided that it had to be a 4.5m and a 5.0m sail and that they had to be the HD version and it had to be on offer so I ended up with a

• Neil Pryde Combat HD 5.0m
• Duotone Super Session HD 4.5m

Sail Audit

I did a bit of a sail audit after breaking the 5.0m at the weekend and did discover some old spare sails that I have.

There was an old 5.7m which does have a repair in it but will act as a spare should anything happen to my newer 5.7m. There was also an old 5m sail. The webbing on the mast tip is only hanging on by a thread but again it’ll suffice as a spare should anything happen to the new 5.0m that arrived today. In fact it was excellent conditions today with a strong Southerly winds and some huge waves so the spare 5.0m came in handy as I had a good session using it with Alistair and Diane before the new sails arrived.

The bit of webbing that looks quite suspect on the spare 5.0m sail that I used is also the bit that I tend to tie a backup lanyard to for my GoPro camera when I have it mounted on my mast. I therefore decided against taking the GoPro out with me today, as I was bound to lose it if I did. I don’t therefore have any video or photos of the session to share with you. There were some big waves though, some big jumps, some big bails and some nice down the line wave rides too. Perfect.

Spare Sails

So, along with the new sails that arrived today I now have spares in sizes 4.5m, 5.0m and 5.7m. They are all old and on their last legs but they are there if I need them. I also have a 6.7m sail that I don’t use that much and an old 4.0m that doesn’t get much use either. The 4m isn’t in too bad condition despite being quite old. That is other than the luff tube where the mice had a go at it. I’ve cut up the sail bag from the ripped 5m and will get Anna to try sewing a patch over the broken area so that it looks a little neater.

I rigged the new sails and they look good. It might be a while before I get to use them though as there isn’t any wind forecast for a while.

I even got some stickers with the Neil Pryde sail – you can’t beat stickers and a new sail day!!!

Tags: Windsurfing