Hi Guys,
My girlfriend has been using a Neil Pryde Zone 4.7 as her bigger sail for a year now and often complains that it is hard to find the "spot" for the harness lines. Also seems to say that its hard to use. On the week end i was out on my 5.7 firefly which is my smallest sail. Breeze really picked up so i gave her zone a run. It was awful! It felt really twitchy like it was either sheeted on or off and no middle ground and quite unforgiving. Certainly couldnt find the groove. I was just wondering if its just me or thats what this sail should feel like? Im sure a pro could do great things with this sail but for the misses to use as an intermediate sail i wonder if its a good choice?. Are there any sails about this size that have a more forgiving freeride feel? Might consider trading it in if need be. I could be wrong with my assesment on the sail and it could just be operator error on my part...I have been wrong before!

i've heard that one year of the zones. they were crap.
i think it was the year before the fly came out

what year is it? ive been using them for the last few years and they are very specific to rig - especially on the 2010 ones.

have you got it rigged on the correct mast?

SOunds like too much outhaul on a sail with max or maybe too much downhaul.
I'm not experienced with Zones of different years, but they are known as a flat sail designed to switch off during a bottom turn, making them narrow focussed and not the best for general sailing.
While you may improve it with precision rigging, it's probably better to trade it on something more forgiving.

Agree with lots of the above - they are very flat, not very powerful and easy to turn off. For me I love them on a real wave but they are not quite grunty enough for B&J or sloppy waves

One thing they are definitely not is "twitchy". They are very light handling and even compared to other wave sails like my Combats you are not even aware it is there

If it is behaving like that it is rigged very very wrong or on the wrong mast

Thanks for the ideas, The mast is an x3 400 19imcs. I did have a lot of downhaul on but didnt think it was excessive. I may have got a bit frisky with the outhaul tho. If she was going to trade it in on another sail any ideas on a good one? for intermediate sailing about hte same size?

i looked on the pryde site and the 4.7 zone is recommended on a 370 mast.

i'd say the wrong mast is the issue.

this is what boards windsurfing had to say about masts.

Stiffness:

"Mast stiffness has a big effect on sail performance. Contrary to popular belief not all 400 masts are the 19 IMCS stiffness that they (virtually all) quote. If you look at the Mast Directory you will see that they vary between about 18 and 23 This is considerable variation. If your sail feels too soft, flexible and unstable try and find a stiffer mast for it, if it feels too hard, stiff, twitchy and unresponsive try a softer one."

i know from my own experience that using a stiffer mast makes a wave sail flatter and raises it's usable wind range. going softer does the opposite.

I have an older Zone 03 I think and its definitely not twitchy. I did find that the 04 I had was flatter but still not twichy. Too much DH & OH will kill the power and make it twitchy. Rig to specs and you should be OK.

Select to expand quote

Gestalt said...

i looked on the pryde site and the 4.7 zone is recommended on a 370 mast.

In 4.7 I have:

A 2004 and 2007 Zone (spares) and a 2008 Combat.... and they are all on a 400 ...... are you sure Gestie? Maybe 2010 - 11 are on a 370 but I am sure none of the earlier ones would be

could be right mk aus. 2009 says 400 but 2010 is 370. don't know which year fletch has?

his description of how the sail feels matches using too stiff a mast or as you and others have said it's not rigged right.

Im not sure on the year but its not 2010 and id be surprised if its 2009 prob 2008. How do you tell? It does say 400 mast on the bag though. Ill pay more attention when i rig it next time, was raining and i was in a rush on Saturday. Problem is it needs to be 25+ before I need it which is not usually the case on days I get a chance to head out. Thanks for the advice, I'll give it another try before trading it in and mabey get her to try someone else's sail of a similar size to see if it works better for her.

Having spent a few days with the Pryde designers and testers on Maui this year and attending the technical presentation by same, I learnt a lot about how to rig them, and how sensitive they can be to too much tension. I learnt that I was using too littel downhaul previously, but that too much is also a problem.
I use the Alpha's which are nice and grunty and are excellent B&J sails.
In a smaller size, the Fly is a nice sail. In previous years it was designed as a grunt sail. This year, the Zone has been dropped, and the Fly is tunable as a JAson sail similar to the Zone or a Kauli sail with more grunt, through adjustment of outhaul.
Not sure where you are, but if you speak to someone who was at teh NP?JP shindig on MAui this year, they can clue you in on teh subtleties of rigging all the new NP wave sails.

Select to expand quote

fletchk said...

Thanks for the ideas, The mast is an x3 400 19imcs. I did have a lot of downhaul on but didnt think it was excessive. I may have got a bit frisky with the outhaul tho. If she was going to trade it in on another sail any ideas on a good one? for intermediate sailing about hte same size?

Select to expand quote

fletchk said...

Im not sure on the year but its not 2010 and id be surprised if its 2009 prob 2008. How do you tell? It does say 400 mast on the bag though. Ill pay more attention when i rig it next time, was raining and i was in a rush on Saturday. Problem is it needs to be 25+ before I need it which is not usually the case on days I get a chance to head out. Thanks for the advice, I'll give it another try before trading it in and mabey get her to try someone else's sail of a similar size to see if it works better for her.

Look at the tiny white tag near the tack (bottom).
It has a serial number like BNP8...... that first number is the year so BNP8C635764 is a 2008 Combat and BNP5ZN98685 is a 2005 Zone

Very important when buying Prydes as their mast curve is weird but sometimes it is more moderate - eg my 2003 and 2004 Zones rig awesome on a 'normal' skinny like a Fiberspar or No Limitz - but the 2008 will only use a Pryde mast, on anythign else it is literally unusable

I had the previous version of zone - core as well as 2008 zone, both sails riped in half beyond repair in choppy, wavey condition. I will never use them again.