I am looking for recommendations for fast sails that aren't as much of a pain to use as the full World Cup slalom sails.
I have an older Naish stealth with 4 cams and a super wide luff sleeve and a Severne code red that I can't get the cams to sit right. The Naish sails well but I have been sailing an estuary with a strong tide and it can be a pain to waterstart when the sleeve is full and the tide is running.

I have used my friends KA koncepts before and they are a really nice balance of performance and usability.

I saw some Loft switchblades that weren't a bad price, has anyone any experience.

I would prefer sails that rig on RDM.

All suggestions welcome

I had KA sails for many years and always been happy. Consider that the latest speed Koncepts have 4 cams, but you can remove the bottom cam for ease of jibing. Pity they are not made anymore

Severne Moto, easy to rig, easy to rotate, pretty fast, a little less top end than Overdrive. Rigs perfectly on Severne mast.

I use to have Naish Redline sails from 2007/08 so know what you mean. When I replaced them in 2015, the slalom/freerace sails had massive luff tubes, which I didnt want. I bought Ezzy sails, and like a lot of the micro cam 2 cam sails, they dont have the same top end as the Redlines. In 2020 I nearly bought the Loft Switchblades as they seemed more like my old Redlines, but stuck with Ezzy as I had the masts, and accepted the lower top speeds but great user friendliness. The Severne Motos look good, but only in monofilm. As Jono Dunnett has found out on his long adventures, x-ply being 2 layers of film does help with a longer life. He had custom built Severne Turbo in x-ply and now Loft Switchblade HD for his Japanese trip.

Thanks for the replies. Yes the loft switchblades look very well built and I am tempted as they are good prices in Europe. Has anyone experience of sailing the recent models?

There seem to be many different configurations
Ezzy Lion and NP v8 - 7 battens 2 cams (batten 2+3)
Severne Moto and Point 7 ACZ - 7 battens 2 cams (batten 1+2)
Loft Switchblade - 6/7 batthens 3 cams (batten 1+2+3)
Tribal Omaha - 7 battens 3 cams (batten 2+3+4)
Duotone S pace - 7 battens 3 cams and 1 sleeve inducer (not sure what that is or what battens it involves)

How does the feel change between cams starting right at the bottom vs cams starting 1 from the bottom?

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windsurftom said..
How does the feel change between cams starting right at the bottom vs cams starting 1 from the bottom?

For many years the KA Koncepts only had cams on the #4, #5 and #6 battens (counting from the top). None on the bottom #7 batten. A few sailors on them went 50 Knots. A hell of a lot went mid to high 40's! In the end they went to 4 cams with one on the bottom. It really didn't feel that different. Most people would not notice. It does help keep the foot of the sail a little tighter and deeper, in the lulls, especially with the change to a much wider luff sleeve, but is it a subtle change.

The 2014 Koncept Speed's Tony and I used at Luderitz were the three cam and narrower luff. Tony Did a 50 peak in a year when the conditions were one of the worst on record for speeds. One of the reasons it was sub optimal was that the water level was very low in the canal, meaning that there was a 30-50cm step down vertical bank, so we were getting very little wind in the foot of our sails, and what did get down there was weak and turbulent, so the bottom of the sail wasn't doing much anyhow. But we used those sails at Sandy Point in it's heyday with beautiful laminar wind right down to water level and they worked extremely well.

Which code-red sails do you have?

There was an error in manufacturing of the 2007 series and both the luff lengths and number of shims were off by quite a bit. They did come out with a adjusted and recommended shims setting for each sail size though, at the time. The 6.7 sail was one of my favourite sails, very good intermediate size that could handle a lot of wind. My top speeds went from around 30 knots (with the SR sail) to above 35knots with the code red sails (plus some extra lead and other improvements...).

The Reflex series were indeed very heavy, certainly were stable, but just felt too heavy most of the time (to me). They were most likely designed for Dunkerbeck at the time, at least the first series (in 2009 or 2010, if I remember correctly).

The Overdrive sails are/were great though, much lighter than the Reflex ones and with an excellent cam rotation. The better rotation comes from the longer cams that they use, as compared to the ones in the Code red sails.

The Mach series is much lighter than the Reflex series, and they can handle just as much wind. The M3 7.0 is another great size (rigs on SDM) and the 6.5 rigs on RDM. Both have a really smooth rotation, especially on the RDM mast, both are highly recommended. No need to go to free-race sails, when the full on race sails are that lightweight and easy to handle.

its a 5.4 like the one in this thread...

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/Severne-Code-Red-help-needed?page=1

not worth persisting with, i prefer RDM anyway

The Code red sail differed a bit throughout the years, and one season they were off by quite a bit in the markings. It just means that they needed a little more shims than normal and the luff dimensions were also quite far off. For instance the 6.7 rigged best with an extra 4cm, while the 9.0 needed about 4cm less than the luff marking on the sail.

With the correct redline mast in them, these sails are great but they do need a gentle push between the lower cams in order for it to flip. Nothing worse than the other race sails that were on offer at that time.

If you can find a second hand (or old-stock) overdrive, these are very nice and user friendly sails. The Moto is intended as a replacement, but I have not sailed these myself.

I like to try and go fast in chop. As a weak older female I prefer sails that aren't heavy to waterstart or fill with water.
Severne Turbos are great. They don't make them any more but you might find some second hand.
They don't have the stability of the OD or Moto. I've had them distort to an S bend shape speedsailing in super overpowered conditions. If you aren't going to speed sail and want something with a better bottom end than the Motos they are fun and fast.
I replaced my 7m Turbo with a 7.2m Moto. I had a Turbo for chop and OD for speedsailing in flatwater .I now have the Moto only.
The Moto has better top end control but takes a bit more wind to get going ( 12kts 7m Turbo - 14/15kts 7.2m Moto).
It's luff is a compromise. Top half narrower/ closer to a Turbo - bottom wider but narrower than the OD used to be.
They both rotate effortlessly on rdms . The Moto has higher aspect and feels more balanced gybing but can take on some water if you fall in .
It drains easily but is still an effort for a small person like me to lift especially in light wind.
The Moto probably has a slightly better top end but you'd probably only notice with a gps.
Both are great fun.

Patrik GT3 all the way. Rigs on RDM, easy to down haul, great rotation &
bullet proof build too

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powersloshin said..
I had KA sails for many years and always been happy. Consider that the latest speed Koncepts have 4 cams, but you can remove the bottom cam for ease of jibing. Pity they are not made anymore

KA Tribal. Same designer (aside from graphics). Same company behind it. It was a consolidation of 2 brands- too much overhead to have two brands/shops to maintain, and Tribal was the one that won out in the decision. So the KA windsurfing product line has changed to Tribal brand.

Tribal Omaha is 3 cam, narrow sleeve. Its a weapon... Over here Tim has been using the 5.8 and keeping up with/ going faster than guys who are much heavier and using full race sails. Its light, fast, and really stable.

I used the 6.6m omha a bunch of times last summer and was significantly faster than everyone else those days (pulling 41/42 on slalom gear).