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Paducah said..Francone said..
..oldish NP Garda 6.2 m.
Speaking objectively as possible: it's not oldish. It's old. The tuning range of older designs is much less than modern sails. It's fine in lighter winds but with it's tight leach, stretch cloth and relatively flimsy battens (all things that make it decent/pleasant in light air) work against it in stronger winds.
The HSM will depend on what model - wave or cammed slalom? Most modern 5 somethings can be sailing to at least the mid 20s. If you can get the board to plane, it will be much easier - there will be substantially less pull on the sail.
At least on modern sails, don't over downhaul them - pull them flat. There needs to be some shape or else you end up with an awful on/off twitch sail.
I finally bought ..(for a song or almost) an HSM 5.2 Fusion from the early 2000's, little used, in mint condition.
You say a 5.2 will carry me into the 20 knts range. I am sure it will, but I don't see myself sailing in that kind of winds. I am more interested in the lower range, about 18 knts , when my Garda begins to show its limitations, due to its old design, as you rightly pointed out . This is why I bought the sail. If It can do it, great!
I later found it is a wave sail, though . Should it matter? Being the minimalist guy I am, it didn't bother me too much, but I am curious to know .
what is the difference in performance between a wave sail and a freeride sail Most likely, a regular freeride sail is not suited for wave sailing, but does it work both ways? One thing I noticed is that this sail has a nice built-in bottom shape, which forebodes power.
The only thing is that the sail specs require a 167 cm boom, but mine is 180 cm min. I'll see how it goes..
Thanks
Francone