Hi,

Looking at graduating to a cam sail. Just wonerding what I need to know - mast required and any other helpful hints.

cheers

Try some different cam sails, 3 cam 4 cam and brands see what you like. Then bye the matching mast as per the sail spec's, this way the sail will perform as designed. that my two cents.

some camed sails have very wide luff pockets that fill up with water making them very hard to water start, I'd avoid those at the moment.

The KA koncepts are a good first option for cammed sails as the luff pocket is not very big compared to some brands and I find it easy too rig as well.

My 2c.... you dont need one.

There are some unreal No-Cam free race sails around. Severne NCX, KA Koyote, NP Hellcat, North E-Type, Ezzy Cheetah etc etc etc. They are just as fast, stable, much simpler to rig, just no fuss all round fun, speed & performance. If you match them with a quick board/fin combo you'll be laughing. Unless you are doing full blown racing, or speed sailing - I wouldnt bother.

FYI - I have 7.5, 6.5 & 5.5 NCX's and swear by them. I'm just as fast as anyone else on the water. My only cammed sail is a 5.0 koncept that i use when its nuking at the PiT or Lake George - a couple of times a year.

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DanP said..
My 2c.... you dont need one.

There are some unreal No-Cam free race sails around. Severne NCX, KA Koyote, NP Hellcat, North E-Type, Ezzy Cheetah etc etc etc. They are just as fast, stable, much simpler to rig, just no fuss all round fun, speed & performance. If you match them with a quick board/fin combo you'll be laughing. Unless you are doing full blown racing, or speed sailing - I wouldnt bother.

FYI - I have 7.5, 6.5 & 5.5 NCX's and swear by them. I'm just as fast as anyone else on the water. My only cammed sail is a 5.0 koncept that i use when its nuking at the PiT or Lake George - a couple of times a year.

Depends what your purpose is. If you are just wanting to cruise and go a bit faster then a no-cam sail is fine. However if you want to push the boundaries a cam sail is more stable and enables you to be confident when overpowered or racing.
Yes a good sailor can be as fast as majority of sailors on a no-cam sail but if you want comfort and speed easier a cam sail achieves this much faster.

A 2-3 cam sail would also be better if you are just getting to that level. Full race sails are great and necessary when wanting to go as fast as possible easily :)

Yip i agree with most of the above. I'd try the 2 cam options first as they are much easier to rig, much less heavy and easier to gybe. NCX/Hellcats/Savages (non cam/freerace) are very good viable alternatives if you are looking for speed and stability. If you jump to a full race sail you might be discouraged by the size of the luff pockets, complex rigging, weight and durability of some of them. If you are looking at a new sail you should ensure you use the recommended mast (generally the mast made by the same manufacturer) but check before you buy. There are a lot of knowledgeable sailors at Wellington Point where you sail that can help you out.

Happy sailing!

Abandon the Cams!

As for me, I jumped from small wave sails (4.7 - 5.8) to large (6.5 - 8.1) four cam race sails (Severne Code Red). The reason was I got a good deal on these sails which I couldn't resist and I had always wanted red coloured Severne as all the fast cool boys had them :)

It has been quite a tough slog with these sails. They are that much heavier that you will be have sore muscles after every session. The huge luff pocket fills up with 50kg of water if you don't act fast after falling off. Despite having the correct mast (Severne Enigma), cam rotations, downhaul settings, cam spacers, batten tensions, outhaul is all very technical and can be problematic. What works one day needs completely different settings on another day.

However, having struggled a bit for the last 8 months, I can say that I love these sails! I feel that their difficulties made me improve faster than if I had stayed with camless. Their stability in gusts and lulls are amazing.

I like Severne Overdrives- only 3 cams easy to rig and not too heavy - I'm a lightweight female so they are important factors..They don't have a big wide luff tube .Great, stable and easy to gybe..
I have one like this and when it fills with water it is almost beyond my strength to uphaul or get it above the water to waterstart so avoid those unless you are fit and strong..

Thankyou all for your tips. Has defiantly given me some food for thought.
cheers

Cammed sails require much more precise rigging to behave well, 2 centimetres of downhaul could be the difference between a light feeling, powered up sail and a sail thats overpowered in the gusts and underpowered in the lulls.
In terms of ease of rigging i can rig my cammed sails just as easily as cammless, its all a matter of practice.

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nspanishwog said..
Hi,

Looking at graduating to a cam sail. Just wonerding what I need to know - mast required and any other helpful hints.

cheers

wonder if Jason Polokow ever 'graduated' to a cam sail?

unless your pushing top 10% , into racing and chasing warp speed's (40kn+) or going extreme angles, the con's of a cam sail outweigh the pro's.

if you really want that feeling of a bit more 'solid' foil that cams offer stay with a 2 cam, kind of get the best of both worlds that way, but don't get fooled into thinking that 'cams' make the sailor, cause they don't.

if there is little chop and over 8.0 conditions - cambered sails are GREAT in the typically gusty winds here

wide luff has its pros n cons
EASY to slide the mast up n down the sleeve with NO crinkle in sail material
some people can waterstart them
others , like me, get it out of the water quickly, EZ uphaul or pull up sloooowly
only once did i swim in cuz i was too tired to uphaul FULL LUFF

freerace , narrow luff cambered is okay, but i bust them up
i try to use them on longboards with tight leech and in the winter on the ice, etc
they die on me - although my Gaastra Flow 3x 7.0 is still going strong !!

all that said, i seem to be going back to non-cambered larger sails with wide wind range
my current experiment is with a HotSailsMaui SpeedFreak 8.5
it lacks the grunt of my MauiSails TR-6 8.4, but has a HUGE range
and when it falls in the water - so easy to uphaul - using newer lighter dacron

and so, i actually have both cambered and non-cambered in my most used sizes
6.9 non-cambered + 7.0 cambered
and as discussed in the 8.x range as well

people who wave sail, bump n jump, freestyle, etc have NO need for cambered

Anything over 7.0 is yachting.
Agree wholeheartedly with the "avoid cams if you are not aiming for 40 knot speeds or racing". Cam less free ride/race sails these days are great.

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JonesySail said...

nspanishwog said..
Hi,

Looking at graduating to a cam sail. Just wonerding what I need to know - mast required and any other helpful hints.

cheers

wonder if Jason Polokow ever 'graduated' to a cam

Jason did use cams sails a long time ago when he was speedsailing. I still have one of them, 4.8 Wild Winds speed trial

i don't know many people using cammed sails who finish a session and say they had an awesome day - there's usually something wrong in their setup, picked the wrong sail size, the mast doesn't work with the sail, something wrong with the weather conditions, the walk to the water is too far or it was the kitesurfers fault for spoiling their session.

flame suit enabled

Did anyone welcome spanish wog to the forum?

Good to see a bit of politically incorrect multiculturalism on this site, instead of full of skippys.

Clarence

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spanishwog said..
Hi,

Looking at graduating to a cam sail. Just wonerding what I need to know - mast required and any other helpful hints.

cheers

Thanks again all for your input. The more I learn the more I think I will stick with what I have as I am a weekend sailor at best and not out to break any records. My 5.4 is getting a bit old in the tooth so before getting a new one I thought I would investigate the pros and cons of camber sails.

Thanks for the welcome Clarence. Been reading these forums for quite a while but have not joined in previously. And yes - quite a bit of politically incorrect multiculturalism in me - a wise man once said "I may not be a wog but I look like one"!!!

cheers