I have 4 KA Race sails, all 2015 and 2016, all rigged on 100% KA masts. The 7.1 is my problem child. I bought it from Shane O'Neill so Shane if you read this I'd love your thoughts.
For some reason this sail is as flat as a tack. There is no belly at all compared to the other 3. I never downhaul it to spec because if I do it looks like a wave sail it is that flat. I have taken all spacers out of the cams and tightened up the batten pressure. All this did was make the sail harder to rotate. This sail has always lacked the grunt my other 3 do. I assume that is due to its flat shape.
Has anyone got the same sail and suffer the same problem? Has anyone got any thoughts on the best cam/spacer compromise? What do spacers actually do anyway??? I would have thought if you have the right mast for the sail you shouldn't need spacers...??
Cheers all.

I have a 7.1 2016, I rig it with an old North 'Drop Shape' mast and it looks good. It's got plenty of shape and bottom end, next time we sail in the same place we can compare.

thought outhaul flattened the sail , non ??
ALL images on the web of the KA race sails are well bellied ...

I never mentioned outhaul. I only have neutral outhaul on any of my sails.
Thanks Georgio, it will be interesting to compare them.

are you using 430 mast , i use the rdm ka masts and heeps belly

Hi Andrew. If the 7.1 is a 2015, and you are using KA 100% Carbon 460 SDM, set extension at 4-5cm less than spec on the sail (I use a Pryde SDM Alloy extension, so using this extension resulted in almost no extension on this sail setting). I have one spacer on the cams as per received from the factory and the 2015s rotate nice on the setting mentioned and have a nice belly. I don't have any stills, but a vid attached you can see the belly at about 30sec when outhaul set to neutral for the downwind run.



If your 7.1 is a 2016, I am not sure about 2016s as I didn't update that year due to injury. Cheers AE

AHHH Lake George, it feels like only yesterday I was there. Oh hang on, I was!!
Yep 2015 AJ and set on KA 100% 460. I will start to run it at much less downhaul and see if that helps and might put a few cam spacers back in.
What do cam spacers actually do???

On occasion you get the odd lemon ,but as suggest ,try other mast ,Im sure this will solve the problem .
i had a 2016 sprint which wouldn't work on my naish mast .put it on a NP .X6 .improved it by 50 %.
it bellied up beautiful.

The use of spacers is just to adjust the cam tension for different masts or slight variations in sail tolerances. I usually use no spacers as I find I get better cam rotation that way with SDM.

The 2016/17 race has slightly more deep lower belly than the 2015, but both are quite deep.

I guess it is possible that you are massively over-downhauling it, but that is pretty hard to do without a downhaul winch. (I don't use one).

My KA Race 7.1 rigs with really deep powerful belly and lovely twisted head. All I can think of is to try another mast, but a 460 KA SDM mast should be spot on.

I think I have found through Adam who had the same sail, mast and even extension that the specs on the sail are just way wrong and I have been overdownhauling by a good 3-4cm. I'll try it with new specs and see how it goes. I have 3 others of these sails but they all rig to spec, this is just an anomaly I think.
Thanks for everyone's input and advice.

My guide for cam spacers is how loose/tight the luff sleeve is at the cam. If it's too tight it will be hard to rotate, if it's too loose you lose shape in the sail. I just pinch the luff between two fingers, you should just be able to get a little slack without your fingers touching. If you can't get any slack and sail is hard to rotate remove spacer. If you can touch fingers together with luff pocket in between them, add spacers until you can't.

so you didn't notice the leach going very floppy?

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AJEaster said..
Hi Andrew. If the 7.1 is a 2015, and you are using KA 100% Carbon 460 SDM, set extension at 4-5cm less than spec on the sail (I use a Pryde SDM Alloy extension, so using this extension resulted in almost no extension on this sail setting). I have one spacer on the cams as per received from the factory and the 2015s rotate nice on the setting mentioned and have a nice belly. I don't have any stills, but a vid attached you can see the belly at about 30sec when outhaul set to neutral for the downwind run.

If your 7.1 is a 2016, I am not sure about 2016s as I didn't update that year due to injury. Cheers AE

nice gybe

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powersloshin said..
so you didn't notice the leach going very floppy?

and that was why i mentioned outhaul
have NEVER downhauled a sail to the flat state you discuss
in terms of spacers, always thought people ONLY needed them to adjust to "wrong" mast
like David Ezzy explains in his rigging videos ...

I like Decrepit's test of how tight the luff pocket is, I think it could also be used to test the amount of downhaul: if you have shape but the pocket is too floppy it means you need more dh or there is something wrong with the mast etc...

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sick_em_rex said..
I think I have found through Adam who had the same sail, mast and even extension that the specs on the sail are just way wrong and I have been overdownhauling by a good 3-4cm. I'll try it with new specs and see how it goes. I have 3 others of these sails but they all rig to spec, this is just an anomaly I think.
Thanks for everyone's input and advice.

I also have the 2015 7.1. It has plenty of depth and power. I rig on a KA 100% carbon 430 mast with 34cm extension. This is 2cm shorter than spec. I down haul, so that the crease in the 4th panel down from the top batten, reaches the middle of the "a" in the "ka" logo on the sail. At this down haul the sail pulley and extension are still about 2cm apart. With this gap, the foot strap is lined up with the bottom of the extension. This gives a good compromise between fullness, rotation and twist. The following is a video of a Moreton Bay Mob session at Lota creek earlier this month. The orange KA sail is my 7.1. The wind was 15 to 18kts, with the odd gust to 20. Most sailors were on their 7s. The KA held its own in the company of Severnes, Avanti, Gun, Point 7 and Loft.