There seam's to be a lot of stories on here about poor quality of Severne equipment, here is video of another broken mast.
Great video of the crash but given that you are talking about the current leader of the PWA I dont see how he could have had to many issues with gear faliure this year.
that's funny...
sorta like saying, wow the Mercedes powered F1 car had an engine failure on the weekend... what does that mean for the reliability of my Vito.
I have heard of no more failure with Severne than any other brand, and it stands to reason that as a brand becomes more popular they sell more so instance of individual failure grows, but the overall percentage vs sales is probably the same. We love bad news stories so people hear about those individual instances.
I will say that each instance of failure I have heard of has been backed up by exceptional service via the brand.
My 490 enigma broke recently Severne replaced the top with no problems however the hole in the luff pocket was my problem to sort. Sailmaker (Manders in Bris) did a top job but its a repaired sail now so it value must have halved if I wanted to sell it.
Was using my Naish 490 while waiting for the replacement and it seems to work pretty well, now I'm a bit scared to try the Severne again in case the bottom breaks and puts another hole in the sail.
Happy with the service regarding the replacement mast top but unhappy with my new sail now having a patch on it. I'm not sure whether or not is reasonable to expect the manufacturer to rectify not only the faulty item but also rectify the damage it caused as well. Any thoughts?
I wonder who is liable if equipment failure results in a serious debilitating injury to ones self or to others. The stack looked pretty nasty.
I wouldn't be particularly concerned especially considering there is a 2 years no questions asked replacement guarantee on masts. It sounds like they had some teething issues with a product, this happens to every company (Apple cough cough) and the issues have been resolved. Most importantly the consumer is protected.
I'm sorry if some people aren't happy with this video but the internet is a great tool for the modern consumer, you can search for any issue's with nearly all products, it may be a TV, phone or windsurf mast. I'm not a good swimmer so my search for new equipment brought up these problems with this product. I thank Severne Sails for replying but your reply instead of being comforting to me was more about questioning my integrity so I thank you for making it easy on my choice for new gear. I wish you luck with your product problems but I will be looking for a more reliable windsurf equipment.
Looks like a failure around boom clamp. Would this be due to the new 'revolutionary' Severne boom head
?
Btw the quality of this video is quite amaizing, hope we get more of the event like this.
Dont think the batch issue Severne have experienced with their Enigma masts has anything to do with being a beginner. Mine snapped of its own accord not because I was sailing it as hard as Bjorn.
I also dont think defending your integrity is a right that can only excercised after a pre determined number of posts on this forum.
I do believe the issue with the enigma mast is a one off batch problem. I think Severne have addressed the problem in the best possible way for their customers and I will be happy to buy the brand again.
My mast broke above the top cam so cant be anything to do with the enigma boom i have which by the way I love.
My Severne Blueline 400cm mast has clocked many miles and no problem.
My 5.6m code red has done close to 10,000km's and not one repair.
Rigging smaller than necessary sail size and compensating with less downhaul/outhaul is my way of increasing life of equipment,particularly mast life.
As you increase the downhaul pressure,so you must increase the stress on the mast.
Same thing happened while racing this last Sunday, to a friend on north gear. 100% carbon mast on first outing and race sail. Not quite as spectacular, but had to wait a while for the safety boat to arrive!
Heard plenty of mast snaps on the beach at slalom and formula events. High end race gear, is not as durable, as the next step down free race gear, or for that matter high end wave/freestyle stuff.
Not sure you can have it all. These posts are a bit confusing, as they might give an impression there was a problem with all Severne masts, when it looks like there might have been a problem with some of the high end race masts, which by definition are pushing the boundaries of what is possible as far as strength and performance are concerned.
While on the subject of broken masts..
After breaking my fair share I've found that if you can
as quickly as possible try to release the tension from the outhaul/downhaul. It will go a long way into preventing the sleeve material from tearing. If its lucky enough to still be in one piece..Which is not always the case but a good thing to keep in mind should one ever let go on you.
RDM race masts offer an alternative. They are MUCH tougher down the bottom because they have a smaller diameter and a thicker wall. They can take compression or a knock or camber wear in their stride. Up the top they are just as light as the SDMs so just as reactive where it counts.