After a year or so of sailing with sails that are a pain to rotate and hard to waterstart I decided to do some research on how to fix things..
Finally got the 7m 2014 Overdrive out and took the spacer out of the cams. Rotate heaps better! Although only 4kt puffs of wind occasionally to get it to rotate. Didn't persevere as a thunderstorm in the area and was feeling nervous standing out in the open with a carbon mast pointing to the sky as lightning struck in the area..
It is nowhere as deep in the foot so I tightened up the bottom battens back a bit to the same as they were or a bit more?? ( I'd let them off beforehand).
It will be interesting to see if it works .
I also noticed the top batten is broken..
Looks like I already have a use for the spare battens in the earlier sails.Hopefully I can get one about the right length off my 2012 7.5 OD.
I'll have to maybe take the spacers out of the other sails too.
I supposed a 7m is designed to be used in 20kts + for 80kg + sailors..I use mine in 12-18kts.

It's not just the wind speed that gets the sail to rotate is that muscle pump when you grab it on the new side.
When I bought Daffy's 4m Koncept I first tried it on a day that was blowing 25-30 knots and it still took me about an hour of loosening batten tension before I could get it to rotate. The guys on the beach could do it but I couldn't. Too weak.

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Windxtasy said..
It's not just the wind speed that gets the sail to rotate is that muscle pump when you grab it on the new side.
When I bought Daffy's 4m Koncept I first tried it on a day that was blowing 25-30 knots and it still took me about an hour of loosening batten tension before I could get it to rotate. The guys on the beach could do it but I couldn't. Too weak.

mm I wouldn't mind a 4m koncept..

If you want your cams to rotate easier during light winds then try wiping your mast down with Armor All.

Cam-rotation does require some strength, but not as much as you might expect - it is mostly a technique thing. A lot of people try to pop the leading edge first -> the whole point of a cam, is to stabilize the leading edge, so any technique which uses brute-force to pop the cams, is just going against the sails' design. [ Obviously there is some strength required, but mostly that is related to the surface area. ]

For example: a Neil Pryde RS-Racing is extremely hard to rotate if you attempt to pop the leading edge first... if you start at the clew-end of the sail, it rotates very easily.

Batten-tension is there to "remove the wrinkles" in the batten pocket [ or more strictly speaking, set the sail-shape ] ... cam-tension is there to stabilize and/or force sail-depth near the mast. Which implies, batten-tension should be (in most sails) independent of cam-tension. Thus removing spacers does make it easier to rotate, but it also affects the sail-shape as the spacers are there to stabilize the foil.

What I did was to setup some gear on a light-wind day, lay the sail down flat on the ground, then push on the batten-above-the-boom trying to find the easiest spot on the batten which causes the sail to pop. Knowing this helps to understand how to get the sail to rotate, say while gybing.

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sboardcrazy said..

Windxtasy said..
It's not just the wind speed that gets the sail to rotate is that muscle pump when you grab it on the new side.
When I bought Daffy's 4m Koncept I first tried it on a day that was blowing 25-30 knots and it still took me about an hour of loosening batten tension before I could get it to rotate. The guys on the beach could do it but I couldn't. Too weak.

mm I wouldn't mind a 4m koncept..

There are some small second-hand Koncepts around - which could be picked up quite cheaply... If you want one, ask around as some people may have them sitting around and are too lazy to put them up for sale. [ for example, I have a few ]

You never know, it might not be that expensive !

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MarkSSC said..
If you want your cams to rotate easier during light winds then try wiping your mast down with Armor All.

Great idea!

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mathew said..

sboardcrazy said..

Windxtasy said..
It's not just the wind speed that gets the sail to rotate is that muscle pump when you grab it on the new side.
When I bought Daffy's 4m Koncept I first tried it on a day that was blowing 25-30 knots and it still took me about an hour of loosening batten tension before I could get it to rotate. The guys on the beach could do it but I couldn't. Too weak.

mm I wouldn't mind a 4m koncept..

There are some small second-hand Koncepts around - which could be picked up quite cheaply... If you want one, ask around as some people may have them sitting around and are too lazy to put them up for sale. [ for example, I have a few ]

You never know, it might not be that expensive !

Just bought a 6.4 + 7.8m + 100% carbon mast so will have to wait till the credit card settles.. ..Doesn't blow enough for a 4m here lately anyway! Maybe next winter. Pm me with the details of yours..