New Boards, Old Faces, Severne Nano V2 issues
That was a fun day! The first proper autumnal winds and a chance to try out my new boards. I’d arranged for Steve and Simon to head this way for the day and Chris was to join us from Aberystwyth too. Things were looking good from the get-go but we had to wait for the tide to drop a little. When I checked conditions at high tide there was plenty of wind and a nice rainbow too.
I did some work at home and then Steve arrived at around 11 am. Time for a coffee and a chat and then we headed to the beach where a nice 25 knot NNW wind was covering the sea with whitecaps. There were some 2 foot waves too. It wasn’t crazy windy on the beach so it was a little difficult to decide what to rig, 5m or 5.7. 85 ltr board or 104ltr? I was going to rig both, but Chris was already rigged up with a 4.5m sail so I started rigging the small kit and watched to see how he got on.
He didn’t look quite powered up enough but wasn’t far off it so rather than rig the bigger kit as well I thought I’d give it a quick go with the 5m and the 85 ltr Severne Nano V2. It was probably the right choice, there was enough wind, especially once out the back but it was a little patchy at times in amongst the whitewater. It was easy enough to get out the back though. Chris had ended up a long way downwind and was changing up to a bigger 5m sail. Simon had arrived too and was heading out with similar sized kit to me. Steve, who hadn’t sailed for a while was still rigging up but was also going with a slightly bigger 5.3m sail.
No Grip
All was looking good and it was nice to see a few of us on the water. I was sailing OK but struggling somewhat with my new Severne Nano V2 board.
It just has no rear-end grip. Even the slightest amount of back foot pressure and the tail would spin out. It was easy enough to retrieve but it wasn’t easy to sail and it certainly wasn’t easy to point upwind on. I made a few adjustments and changed my sailing style. I put much more weight on the front foot and none on the rear foot but still it just wouldn’t grip. I knew I’d have to change my sailing style a little seeing as I was going from a 15-year-old board to a more modern one but I didn’t expect quite such a difference.
Steve now joined us on the water and was sailing well. Everyone was ending up downwind though. The NNW wind and the strong current were acting together making holding your ground difficult. This was even more pronounced for me on a board that simply wouldn’t hold its line if pointed even slightly upwind and would just track sideways.
A Bigger Board
The wind eased off a little for a while so I changed onto my new RRD FSW 104. This was a completely different beast. It was buttery smooth over the waves and the chop and it gybed like a dream. It didn’t feel particularly fast or responsive just really smooth and controlled. It was a little too big for the conditions really but I could at least head upwind and sail where I wanted to rather than where the board dictated. Just as I was getting the feel for it the wind went mental. It was far too much for a 5m, probably too much for a 4m and definitely too much to handle on a 104ltr board!
I held on and fought against it to get back to the beach, heading far upwind as I did so – I wasn’t about to bear away in such conditions! Simon and Chris were miles downwind and walking back up the beach. Steve was struggling to hang on in the crazy conditions. He came off and then took a while to get going again. He made it back though and was even farther downwind so had a long walk of shame.
Railing It
I changed back down to the smaller board to give it another go while the others watched on from the shore. I got on a little better this time but it still didn’t feel great. I was literally sailing just on my front foot. The extra power now that the wind was stronger did mean that I was up onto the plane immediately and could power out through the waves a little easier but the rear end was still really slippery and just wouldn’t bite. I did eventually manage to gain some ground upwind on it but only by sailing on its rail and using the length of the board to provide some bite. It felt more like a kitesurf board than windsurf board sailing it like this.
Elsewhere the board felt fine, it was certainly lively and responsive and turns so fast that I wasn’t quite ready with the rig flip in some gybes to start with.
The others looked as though they’d had enough and were heading back up the beach so I sailed back in one last time and then packed up too. It had been quite a long day on the water but I’d forgotten to restart my watch when I changed board so only recorded the first part of the session.
Back at home, Steve joined me for a coffee and then headed off back inland. I meanwhile started to do some research into the issue of rear-end grip with this board to see if a change of fins could help. I did discover that I’m not the only one having problems. As I suspected a change of fins might help somewhat.
New Fin Options
The board comes as standard in a thruster configuration with an 18cm rear fin and two 10cm front fins.
The first option is to go with slightly larger fins both front and rear and to replace the two front fins with asymmetric fins with some toe-in. I could therefore change from an 18cm rear fin to a 20cm rear fin and change the two front fins from 10cm standard fins to 12cm asymmetric fins with 1ยบ toe-in. The larger size will obviously help with grip and upwind ability. The asymmetric nature of the fins adds grip too as one side of the fin is flat rather than rounded and apparently, the toe-in helps as well. Presumably, the toe-in puts the fins at a better angle to stop them from slipping so much.
The other option is to set the board up as a quad rather than a thruster. This would mean getting two quad rear fins. I’d probably go with 15 or 16cm rear fins and keep the 10cm front fins that I already have. I’m also wondering if adding the asymmetric toed-in fins on the front along with the rear quads would help even more. I mentioned it to Simon online last night and he has some rear quad fins that I might be able to borrow just to see if it makes a difference before buying some for myself.
I guess there is a third option as well and that would be to sell the board and get something that doesn’t have these issues. I did of course read some reviews of the board before buying it, but none of them mentioned the fact that there was no rear-end grip at all. I’m sure it’s fine on a wave when you are carving from rail to rail and surfing it rather than sailing it, but I would have expected it to be sailable as well as surfable as the Severne Nano V2 is a windsurf board after all and not a surfboard.
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[…] was looking good so I rigged my 5.0m sail and decided to once again try the Severne Nano 87 that I’d had issues with. This time I had borrowed a pair of rear quad fins from Simon so that I could sail it as a quad fin […]
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Could not return it as unfit for purpose and buy one that is ?
Still nice to read you’re having fun though x
Could do I guess, but I’ve already taken the other one back and exchanged it! Think I’ll try with different fins and persevere for a bit. I can always sell it and get something else if I can’t get on with it.