Anyone sporting the new charge sails. From what I can tell from recent years there design features look as good as some of the more well known brands with full grid construction and these sails aren't heavy either...but how do they perform?

I have a 3.5m 2001 charge that is dying now but was a great sail. Used it mostly for foiling. It was super powerful for it size; it had a 2nd batten that stopped a few inches before the mast sleeve giving a section of material to balloon out when pumping and give a super stable draft forward profile, the new sails don't look like they have this but I imagine the performance has improved over 20 years
This sail had huge range even rigged on a 400cm mast!
The sail would go really neutral for transitions like duck gybes or down wind 360s. For a 20 y/o sun faded sail it was pretty bomb proof still full grid construction back then, the fact that it lasted this long
Do the new charges still have that durability?
Are these underrated sails or should I be looking elsewhere?

Pictured is the 2021 sails

I have 4 sails in the Freespeed line, 2016 model year, light but durable, and great support. Last I heard they were going to dacron for the luff panels to eliminate crinkling of the x-ply.

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Sandman1221 said..
I have 4 sails in the Freespeed line, 2016 model year, light but durable, and great support. Last I heard they were going to dacron for the luff panels to eliminate crinkling of the x-ply.

They also have a stainless steel ring on the clue not sure how much weight it actually saves but all other brands like Severne are doing this.


would like to correct something I said above; its actually a full batten above the boom on my 2001 charge. I thought it was a half batten there since the material is so soft/flexible it allows it to balloon a lot. Some other brands have a wrinkle there to do this aswell. So not just one way to create power there.

I like the fact that the sails are designed and tested in Florida where they have "real world conditions". I don't live in a place like Pozo where they are blessed with stong winds all the time. So these sails need to be powerful and work well in the type of light wind or gusty conditions most places have.

They also went to a tack strap that is integrated with the downhaul pulley, but have not seen a picture of it.

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Sandman1221 said..
They also went to a tack strap that is integrated with the downhaul pulley, but have not seen a picture of it.

Saw a video at the Aerotech website of the tack strap II, is nice, no more wrapping strap around the sail mast sleeve, just put tack strap through a steel loop on the backside of the downhaul pulley.