A Severne retailer sold me a GT Turbo 2022 8.1m with an Arc SDM mast (460).

With a ton of downhaul (as much as I can pull using arms and legs, and I am no baby) I get the pulleys close but still a cm or two short of the recommended setting. I wont get it further without having to buy a crank, and it already looks super tight along the luff. The leech looks relaxed down to the logo and the battens above the top cam sit by the side of the mast, not in front nor behind.

I dont have to pull the downhaul this hard with my slightly smaller Severne cam sail (OD 7.0m) to get to a nice setting.

Good local slalom riders with similar non Severne cam sails tell me the settings and shape looks good.

And yet I dont find the cams rotate very well unless I put tigher outhaul on, and then I feel it lacks belly by the mast and the center of effort is a bit more on my backhand.

I see some comments on here on this, and I play with it, but just dont seem to find the sweet spot. Its OK, just doesnt seem great.

Any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong ?

Is it a case of buying a downhaul crank to gain another cm or a better mast, bearing in mind my level is intermediate so I am not chasing top performance ?

Any suggestions from your experience much appreciated.

Photos or videos? Lube up the pulleys with some water, ensure mast is in correctly, up top, junction and extension.

You may add 2cm at the extension. It's easier to downhaul when the lines are a bit more spread out than near touching.

Do pull the outhaul tight before last downhaul pull then ease it off as needed.

HI Jason ,I have a couple of severne sails ,and I find max downhaul works best ,once you set the downhaul ,you can play around with the outhaul ,even at full downhaul I can still get a good belly on them ,sometimes even with the sail touching the boom ,I have a few Maui sails too and they actually require more on the extension like the next hole down to get a nice feel and set properly ,once you get into the bigger sizes of sails ,do yourself a favour and buy a Downhaul winch especially with cam sails ,there's no way in hell I could set my 8,4 Maui without a winch without burning my hands or wrecking my back ,it just sounds like you need more downhaul ,then let the outhaul right off in a neutral setting to get the belly ,maybe think of a outhaul system later down the track so you can adjust your belly while sailing ,

if you post a picture of your sail rigged .other who have the turbo could comment .

Thank you for reassuring me I should dare to pull more. I will get a winch and hope the whole set up does not implode. Will take pics next time if it still feels wrong. Its confusing as my slightly smaller 3 cam OD, on a gorilla rdm mast, works a dream with seemingly less downhaul stress.

Are you using anything to pull with or using bare hands? Just to state the obvious, you can use the harness hook with a couple of wraps of the line to pull the downhaul. I use that when on the water to spare my hands when tweaking downhaul, especially on the big 9.0 4 cam.

On the beach I use a clam cleat, which is just a piece of metal with a cleat that's easier to pull the rope with. Other people use winches but wanted to make you aware of the harness option if you weren't already.

On smaller sails (6ish and down) I have a cyclops extension that has a protected plastic pull handle that makes it really easy to adjust downhaul, but bigger than that it would not be easy as it only uses a couple pulleys while the bigger sails use 3 or 4.

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Jasonwave said..
A Severne retailer sold me a GT Turbo 2022 8.1m with an Arc SDM mast (460).

With a ton of downhaul (as much as I can pull using arms and legs, and I am no baby) I get the pulleys close but still a cm or two short of the recommended setting. I wont get it further without having to buy a crank, and it already looks super tight along the luff. The leech looks relaxed down to the logo and the battens above the top cam sit by the side of the mast, not in front nor behind.

I dont have to pull the downhaul this hard with my slightly smaller Severne cam sail (OD 7.0m) to get to a nice setting.

Good local slalom riders with similar non Severne cam sails tell me the settings and shape looks good.

And yet I dont find the cams rotate very well unless I put tigher outhaul on, and then I feel it lacks belly by the mast and the center of effort is a bit more on my backhand.

I see some comments on here on this, and I play with it, but just dont seem to find the sweet spot. Its OK, just doesnt seem great.

Any suggestions as to what I am doing wrong ?

Is it a case of buying a downhaul crank to gain another cm or a better mast, bearing in mind my level is intermediate so I am not chasing top performance ?

Any suggestions from your experience much appreciated.

Turbos rely on downhaul to get a good belly so it's important to get the pulleys right down. You'll probably need a crank.
The leech does look super floppy when downhauled to specs.
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Its new. It will take a few sessions to bed-in.

also make sure you have high quality downhaul rope, even formuline when is old does not work as well as a new piece

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DavidJohn said..

What if your gluten free ?? LOL.

Its all brand new, I use a baton on the string to not rip my hands. Crank on order.Was I wrong to get the "cheaper" sdm 460 Apex mast rather than full carbon ? The shop said it would be fine for my needs on this sail.my other smaller cam sails (OD 7.0, Turbo 5,5) set fine on my shorter Gorilla rdm and without as much downhaul effort.

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Jasonwave said..
Its all brand new, I use a baton on the string to not rip my hands. Crank on order.Was I wrong to get the "cheaper" sdm 460 Apex mast rather than full carbon ? The shop said it would be fine for my needs on this sail.my other smaller cam sails (OD 7.0, Turbo 5,5) set fine on my shorter Gorilla rdm and without as much downhaul effort.

Check what size camber inducers the sail has. If its got rdm size camber inducers (like a lot of severne free ride sails have these days) and you're sticking an sdm in there, it'll cause the issues you're describing. failing that, like everyone said, more downhaul.

Can't speak for Severn but with NP evo 12/13 I can down haul easily the sails less than 7.4m but the 8.2 and the older evo10 9m there is no way in hell I can downhaul them with out a winch rig. I have even busted two NP carbon extensions getting enough downhaul due to too much angle until the pulleys get very close. So Im guessing it's similar for your set up-the rig tension would be a j curve if you were to graph it. It goes up a lot with each sq m of sail. Good trick is to make sure you rinse sand and or salt off the gear to reduce any friction and you can even silicone spray the mast to help loose its 'stiction'.

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Jasonwave said..
Its all brand new, I use a baton on the string to not rip my hands. Crank on order.Was I wrong to get the "cheaper" sdm 460 Apex mast rather than full carbon ? The shop said it would be fine for my needs on this sail.my other smaller cam sails (OD 7.0, Turbo 5,5) set fine on my shorter Gorilla rdm and without as much downhaul effort.

I used to get the top of the line masts but had a few breakages and now use the second best. Works fine for me!

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Subsonic said..

Jasonwave said..
Its all brand new, I use a baton on the string to not rip my hands. Crank on order.Was I wrong to get the "cheaper" sdm 460 Apex mast rather than full carbon ? The shop said it would be fine for my needs on this sail.my other smaller cam sails (OD 7.0, Turbo 5,5) set fine on my shorter Gorilla rdm and without as much downhaul effort.

Check what size camber inducers the sail has. If its got rdm size camber inducers (like a lot of severne free ride sails have these days) and you're sticking an sdm in there, it'll cause the issues you're describing. failing that, like everyone said, more downhaul.

Yes I did that one time.. really bad trying to rig it and no way would it rotate.. All part of learning..