I have been trying to get KA Sails to make a 4m Koncept for a while now. A special sail for smaller guys for really special days. Last September 27th proved there are days when if you can just stay in control and keep the power on you can go faster than you ever have before. Who wants to have a good chance at 50 knots? Who wants to make a name for themselves? [}:)] There have been a few other days in the last few years when the same situation has occurred. It might not happen again for a year or two but when it does you can bet you would deeply regret letting this chance go by. We need a need a couple more orders to make it a goer. The design is pretty much done. Please email me quickly if you are interested.

Just order an 8m and we'll go halves

ummm.. i have a 4.4 that hasnt been used in 4 years here in the west...and im 72kgs! i think have only used a 5.0 once in the last year as well...
dont think i would ever use a 4.0 based on that...not here anyway

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snides8 said...

ummm.. i have a 4.4 that hasnt been used in 4 years here in the west...and im 72kgs! i think have only used a 5.0 once in the last year as well...
dont think i would ever use a 4.0 based on that...not here anyway

Yeah, It's a different story over here at the Pit though. I use the 5m more than any other sail and I use my 4.4m at least 5 or 6 sessions a year, depending how good the summer is, and there is usually at least one day every couple of years where it blows 45-50 knots and the 4.4 is out of control.

Hi Andrew,

Small Sails usually have a very short boom length making the Sail very twitchy with the wide wind range they have to operate in, presume that wind range would be 25-60 knots?

Have you solved this problem?

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icesurf said...

Hi Andrew,

Small Sails usually have a very short boom length making the Sail very twitchy with the wide wind range they have to operate, presume that wind range would be 25-60 knots?

Have you solved this problem?

Yes!

It must be said though that on 27/09/09 there was nothing under 30-35 knots, even in the lee of the dunes!! And on the course it was 40Knots in the lulls, which were very rare.

I noticed that the sails in my avatar are 3.5 and 3.8m specialised cambered speed sails (early 1990's, NP Camspeed and Wild Winds Speed proto). Neither sail was overly twitchy but the modern sails are far better anyhow both in stability, efficiency, range and most importantly feel (user friendliness).
The boom length on the new 4m will be virtually the same as the 4.4m.
See this clip of my mate Peter and I on the Tandem in about 1990. 35-45 knots of wind. 2.9m in the front and 3.2m speed sail on the back! We were pulling around 35-36 knots on the speedwatch. I remember we had a 13" Torquay elliptical slalom fin in it!
Note that there were no dunes and on a true SW we could do speed runs back towards the launching area. At the start a board flashes by with a NP 3.5m Cam speed on it.
Yes, stopping was just as much of a problem then as it is now.

Second run:

And while I am at it there is this one from a different day. 3.2 sail, weight vest and 45-50 knots:

A 4.0 Ka Koncept would sell like Hot Cakes.. Andrew would sell a million Sailquik when you get one can i have little go of your one for the next sandy point cup day?? be my buddy I think we should all ring up andrew at Ka and ask him to build us all a 2.5m koncept for the the pit.. if 20 guys all ring at once it would be awesome

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flipper4444 said...

A 4.0 Ka Koncept would sell like Hot Cakes.. Andrew would sell a million Sailquik when you get one can i have little go of your one for the next sandy point cup day?? be my buddy

well why dont you buy one

Still with a 2.9m sail. Geoff Smiths great liftoff!

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flipper4444 said...

A 4.0 Ka Koncept would sell like Hot Cakes.. Andrew would sell a million Sailquik when you get one can i have little go of your one for the next sandy point cup day?? be my buddy

No! [}:)] Put your order in cheapskate!

Your dam good at finding videos on the pit sailquik i thought i had seen all the videos on the pit i love that last video of the speed junkie lifting off the water with his 2.9m thats awesome..

We were very lucky for a few years because my good mates Peter and Geoff Smith were mad keen with the Sony Handicam in it's waterproof housing! I have quite a lot of footage from around then.

Hey saikquik a mate off mine still has a 3.5 NP speed in his shed, the ones with 8 battens and 6 cambers even in the smallest sizes, would be from the very early ninties, would be sweet for your tanden. I think he even still has the old jump city speed board to go with it.

Great soundtrack...VH rocks.

OK the sailings not too shabby either. Good Luck with the 4.0

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jimbob SA said...

Hey saikquik a mate off mine still has a 3.5 NP speed in his shed, the ones with 8 battens and 6 cambers even in the smallest sizes, would be from the very early ninties, would be sweet for your tanden. I think he even still has the old jump city speed board to go with it.

Yeah.....well........its good fun for a bit of nostalga........., but I'd really rather sail the newer stuff.........'cept the tandem speed board that is....

Yeh you are so right, there was no leech twisting off on them old sails and your needed arms like popeye in the gusts...........my new KA's are so stable now you forget how exciting the old days where....

Andrew I notice there no side bend and very little for-aft bend on most of the sails in the vids not to mention about 3 feet of mast sticking out of the 2.9 on lift off.
I wonder if the user friendliness of modern sails is more to do with the fact we now have better 3.5 and 3.70 wave masts to use on our small sails.

For sure David. Not long after this we got out first softish 4.00 mast. (A Gaastra fiberglass mast which is still in my shed somewhere.) When we rigged those small sails on that it was a revalation. After that we started cutting the bottom off longer masts but it was only a half measure as they were still a little stiffer than the purpose built shorter masts (which were very hard to find by the way).
In 1989 when Mal Wright exceeded the existing world record he used a custom proto 3.8m speed sail on nuclear winds he had a short, matched carbon mast. In those conditions it would really have made a big difference.
On the big day in 2004 Speedweek I used the new KA KAOS 3.7 on a really nice, quite soft 370 RDM and it really made life easier. Even on such a small sail I could feel it flexing in the gusts and absorbing the shock. The sail remained super stable.

I will be using a 340 RDM mast on the Koncept 4m.

Andrew, is that a proto , 30cm off the bottom of a 370 or a RDM that is not on the KA site?

340cm not yet listed.