Hello,

I´m looking for a bigger sail for my RRD 130 LTD board just for lighter winds. Now I have 2012 North Sails S-type 8.4m, but planning to get 2014 S-type 9.5m, Ram F14 9.3m or Warp 2014 9.6m. Do you think that those sails would make a nice difference in lighter wind compared to my current 8.4m sail?

Ram F14 9.3m and Warp 9.6m call 490 mast, and my current mast is NS Gold 460, so would those sails work well with my 460 if I extended it by a NS Platinum CX 40 carbon extender? I wouldn´t like to buy another mast...

Thanks a lot for your help.

Sam

Hey Sam. My 8.5 gets me (75kg) going in pretty light winds on 110ltr. I had a 460 mast that I used on my 7.4. Tried it on the 8.5 Koncept with the extender, but no good. It just would not set well, flat, no shape, no power. Had to buy a 490, then it set well. The 460 was just too soft to support the larger sail. I have considered a larger sail at times, but if wind is below 10knots I just use my longboard and forget about planing. My experience. Cheers, Pete

Hello Pete,

Thanks for your reply. I asked others about this and they recommended not to get a bigger sail - instead a bigger fin. I will get a 50cm fin now. If there is no wind enough then I´ll ride with my WWII bike

Cheers, Sam

I haven't personally tested the large sails, but had a recent conversation with an experienced windsurfer using the 8m+ sails (trustworthy source).

Apparently about 8.5m is the sweet-spot for early planing. Anything bigger than about 8.5m and you will still plane at the same wind strength, however the only benefit is that once you are planing with say your 10m sail for example, then you will have greater ability with upwind / downwind angles compared the guy using the 8.5m.