Hi,

I need info/advice from more experienced speed/slalom surfers.

Anyway, my small slalom board is Tabou Manta 116 liters (71 cm). My favorite combo is with 7,2 cam sail and 38 cm slalom fin. Works really fine..

I surf on pretty much flat spots (sometimes it gets little choppy, but really small chop).

For high wind days, recently I have purchased 6,3 sail. I'm thinking to pair it to above mentioned manta (71cm) with 36 cm fin. On the other side Tabou states that Manta is designed to sails up from 7,1.

Will this combo work in your opinion - 116 Manta 71 cm wide, paired with 6,3 cam sail and 36 cm slalom fin. I'm 105 kg.

Cheers,

S

I typically ride a Manta 100l (I'm just under 80kgs) down to a 2cam 6.0m with a 35cm fin. I suspect your combo will work alright for you providing it is windy enough - and seeing you've already bought the sail, I say just try it out and see for yourself.

I have the 113/71, but weigh about 80 kgs and the smallest sail I used with it was a 7.0. In my opinion it will work in flattish water, move the mast foot more forward than you normally have with the bigger sails, probably the 38 fin will still be acceptable unless really overpowered.

My two cents worth..

I don't use a wide range of gear and last season I spent most of my time sailing 5.8 and 6.6m Ka Koncept speed/slalom sails with 32/34/36cm various Vector fins on my circa 115lt board. I weigh 100kg. When it was light I used my 7.5 with a Lockwood CLSL38 which just gets me going in 12-15kn. My top speeds in light conditions on the bigger board were around 30kn and needed 20kn and 34cm fin to approach 35kn then the tail of the board generated too much lift and dropped the nose too much.
With the smaller sails in 20-25kn blasting around at 30kn was unavoidable but 34cm was too much fin.

This season I have added the Tabou Speedster 100lt and maiden voyage on Sunday in 12-15km with 7.5 Koncept and Lockwood 38 - top speeds about 25kn just not enough power to drive the fin and get above the chop and the bigger board would have helped a bit and with say a 7.9 Race sail would have been perfect to test me in the lulls.

I reckon if you can make the Manta work with the 7.2 and 38 in light winds you will be fine with the smaller combo though when it really picks up you may want to drop a fin size or two to achieve high speeds deep off the wind.

Like the others have said, I reckon you will be ok with a 36cm fin, and even smaller when you are fully powered up especially in flat water. In flat water on my 113 Falcon (69 wide) I use the following combos which work well for me at 90-94kg (depending on pie and beer consumption):

7.9m sail - 38cm slalom fin
7.1m sail - 36cm slalom fin (favourite combo on my big board)
6.3m sail - 36cm, slalom fin, but if overpowered, I have even used a 34cm in flat water which works nice too.

thnx people!

Select to expand quote

Skyhunter said..
Hi,

I need info/advice from more experienced speed/slalom surfers. (Snip)...

For high wind days, recently I have purchased 6,3 sail. I'm thinking to pair it to above mentioned manta (71cm) with 36 cm fin. On the other side Tabou states that Manta is designed to sails up from 7,1.

Hi Skyhunter,

That wind range is too far outside my experience for me to be much help. My 'high wind days' are 40-60 knots and that why I have a 4.6m and 4.2m KA Koncept speed sail! Normal average 'speed sailing' days (30-40 knots) for me are 5m to 5.4m days, 16.5-18cm cm fin and 40cm board.
But I do love to blast around on my IS87, C3 Vector 34 and 6.2m Koncept in 18-25 knots days. Your board sounds a tad too large for max speeds in that wind. In slightly stronger winds I go to 26 - 30cm fins with 5.8m sail on the IS87.

Good to see you are into going as fast as possible in the conditions you have though!