thanks for sharing the pics...

First go on my new Reflex 5 9.5m sail - on my Phantom raceboard. Wow - I really like this sail. Very smooth delivery of power in gusty conditions (up to about 20 knots). The sail wanted to drive the board forward in a very civilized manner. The only adjustments out of the bag was batten tension and an extra spacer in the second top inducer - sweet! Camber inducer rotation is as good as rumoured - very good! Happy!!




The sail looks rather "square" in this photo - just the small phone camera I think.

The reflex 5's are a totally different beast to the 3's and 4's !

They are a much more softer feel and stable locked in sail. The head of the sail as you view it from the side is a lot more open and twisted than the previous reflex's

I have used the 6.2 , 7.0, 7.8 , 8.6 and the 9.5

Basically stretched each sail in over 30 or 40 mins and tensioned the battens and reflex tensioners as I sailed to get the shape into them. I Adjusted the downhaul to get the optimum setting and it was a joy to use.

All the sizes amazingly rotate like a dream , I have never had a sail of any size rotate like the R5's, they even rotate when you are just holding them in the water before water starting.

The 9.5 I had used for 30 mins on the river where I stretched it in and found optimum downhaul and boom height. I then rigged it for the second time at the Ledge to Lancelin and had my boom lower in safety of the wind picking up in the open ocean on big gear, and I came 2nd. It felt so light and easy on the arms and gybing was awesome.

I think with the decrease in the mast curve of the sail and mast tension together with an extra batten, the sails are actually keeping the boards down on the water with better downforce and reducing the fin lift , helping control in the gusts.

The sdm 90 masts also work exceptionally well and are just as competitive in performance at the top level.

All in all I am totally satisfied with the R5's, and honestly think they are the best sail I have ever had. Don't know what Severne are going to do to improve this one

Thanks for those nice appetizers.
Did anyone tried it already with the enigma masts from 2013/2013?
We have no new 90% or 100% mast yet in Japan and I wonder how it will influence the sails performance.

~Shinobi

That sounds great Sean!
Thanks a lot for your insight and explanations.
The 2013 Enigma masts do indeed feel harder and are more physical to sail, the sail setting is a whole different task.... For 8.6/9.6 I do use a winch.
Now I'm happily anticipating my new sails and look forward to take them out for a spin.

Are you saying that the cam rotation will be even smoother than with the R4/R3? Can't imagine that for a race sail. ==> Before using Reflex sails I used to ride Vapor sails and they had a quite tricky manual cam shift which usually required using your hands or feet or continue sailing with the cams on the wrong side. Since my first Reflex I'm not used to this technique any more. Well, I'll be happy to even more impressed by the engineering of Ben and his mates.

Have you heard anything about the batten quality? Especially for the foot batten?
==> The R4's batten had quite some potential for higher batten strength/quality...

~Shinobi

Sean, even with additional spacers? Maybe I need to get every size double just for the case that the next model doesn't have such a great rotation ;-)
By the way, did the performance increase with the super, super tight luff pocket?

~Shinobi

A race sail that rotates.....now that will be a first.

Hi all,

From Belgium-Europe : I am reading your positive reviews about the Reflex 5's very good rotation : that's already an important point out of the way !

Actual pictures or images of the 2014 are hard to find, so it's great to finally find some pictures in this thread. But now that I see them, I notice that the colors are quite different in reality than on the product page: http://www.severnesails.com/race-sails/severne-reflex-5
In reality the red tissue in the top of the sail is much darker than on the product page, where it seems almost the same red color as the mast sleeve.
This of course is just cosmestics, but the combination cherry-orange actually turns me off. I thought they were unicolored red-transparant, like previous models.

So... are the Reflexes on the pictures in this thread the standard models, no custom colors ? Are these the colors I have to exspect if I would order them ? Are the colors true to the real-life colors ?

Thanks !
Pat

Hi, thanks for the new picture !
Now comparing this one to the picture on the still current spec page on the Severne site shows a totally different beast altogether !
Was your pic a prototype ? Or even of a more recent sail than the other pics in the thread ?
The red fills in really dark to my taste

PatE said..

Did the colors actually change from 2013->2014 ?
These are pics of the Reflex 4 2013:
jeffreyvanhoe.wordpress.com/tag/severne-reflex-4/
here the red does not seem so dark.

Haha yeah copied wrong pic, I just searched for 2014 Lanno pics cause it was sunny there. We used to have a Preview Post function on this forum that's now missing I blame that..

Photos in the link you posted of the Reflex4 and here is the Reflex5 in the same spot..




If the red's a bit dark for your taste, maybe you could check out the GA Sails?

Pat the new Severne reflexes look sh!t hot on the water. The 4's and the 5's both look way better than the 3's did. You may like different things about other brands but nothing looks better. The rich red in the top half of the sail looks class. In fact the whole sail looks class. They perform great as well. Sort of like scoring a night with Miranda Kerr then finding out she goes off like a fire cracker as well. Caching.

PatE said..
Does anyone have some more action pictures / movies of the Reflex5 on the water ?

Link of the first movie FW European Cup of the event.Look to POR5 - event winner :



Link of the official pictures of the event
www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.731639076860944.1073742029.287000761324780&type=1

voila :
all 2014 gear

about to be lapped ...

Reflex5 7.8 riging and tuning guide by Cyril : .be