Hi all,thinking about getting one,never had one ,dont know anyone had
them,are they well built?,wind range?,top end? any info would be much
appreciated
cheers..

Hey Bora I had a 5.0,6.0 2004 model and 7.0 2005 model rapid fires.
I love the performance of these sails particularly the 6.0.
Ive sailed this sail from 18 to 35 knots with ease and clocked 42 knots 2 sec speed down at sandy point last year on them.
I recently went one step up and got the AEROTECH VMG striving for that bit extra speed. Hard to comment on there quality as I only had them for 12 months but my last set of AEROTECH lasted me 7 years and I do like the xply in them.
hope this helps vando.

Just got an '04 8.5 rapid fire. Love it

I considered the rapid fire's after sailing heaps with vando, what impressed me was not only the speed but the wind range of them- often he'd be hanging on when I needed to change down (I was using pryde rx2 race sails). They twist off so well that you can hang on to them for a long time if needed. Also being not as rigid as race sails helps you keep the speed up through the chop. The are light sails, I got an 8.5 as I felt a 9m didnt suit me but after using the rapid fire I would definately consider getting a 9.7m, the handling is excellent and cam rotation is very good.

I am critical of the rapid fire's in 2 areas: the luff material, it should be similar to the vmg's or charge which both use dacron BUT the dacron is more susceptible to damage. Stitching, it is fine but could be improved. IMO the new North Daytona has the best stitching of any freerace sail i've seen but the aerotech films should outlast any monofilm sail so pick your evil. On that the rapid fire is simple to rig due to the pentex film, you can wrinkle it up which you cant do with monofilm unless you want big creases through the film.

Be aware also that under 6m they change from a freeslalom type sail to more of a bump and jump sail.

Summing up:
Wind range
Speed
Bottom end
Handling
Rigging (it still has cams, and the cam access slits are annoying)
Materials
Build quality

thank you both for the feedback guys,got one more question for you,
my mast is ART speedstick %75,I know that some sails can be fussy about certain masts ,like V8, just wondering would that be a problem
to getting cams in place? best regards.Bora.happy sailing

Art should work fine, 75% is perfect for rapid fire. Vando tried a few different masts- mostly powerex's of varying content and they seemed to work well. They dont appear to be as mast specific as pryde's.

I use a arrows 100 in mine and it works good, I have filed a bit off the bottom cam to aid rotation a bit but that is mostly because I crank the batten tension.

One word of warning regarding rigging, make sure all battens specifically the cambered ones are all on the same side. The rapid fires put alot of curve into the front of the battens and not having all of them on the same side will break the battens. You dont pop the cams on, rather you pull them down the mast when rigging.

If you are coming from pryde the RF's will probably feel a bit soft, I got used to it pretty quick and actually prefer it now.

Yea ive owened a 6.5 rapid fire 04-05 mod great sail very strong, bom proof only prob i had was cam rotation problems and i was using a 80% carborn power-x ended up filing batten side of cam to releve tention after breaking batten mi mat had a 05-06 6.5 and had the same prob with cam rotation keep this in mind great sail otherwise good luck steve o, this year ive decided on the north daytona 6.5m 06 mod ive riged it but havent sailed it yet but it looks good.