Looking at adding either of these to my kit.

I have a JP FSW101 '08. NP Alpha 5.8 & Combat 5.0
Masts I have are NP 430 X9 wave & NP 400 Xcombat.
I am 6ft 80kgs. Planing in the harness & struggling with gybes.

I have never owned a cammed sail before are they hard to tune / rig & maintain?
I am sort of steering towards the Hellcat but don't know much about the V6.

Would love some feedback from anyone that owns either of these or your thoughts in general.

Cheers.

I sailed the Hellcats since they were introduced in 2007 to now. The are a great camberless Free race sail. Out of the two sails you have mentioned the Hellcat is a better choice. If NP still had the Saber I would have suggested that sail for your board as it leans more to crossover than the Hellcat does.

I have not sailed the 09 Hellcats but i found the 08 6.7m Hellcat draft moved a bit in the sail.

To make the right choice what type of sailing you want from your kit? You need to think of what fin you will be using etc.

Select to expand quote

WindRider said...

I sailed the Hellcats since they were introduced in 2007 to now. The are a great camberless Free race sail. Out of the two sails you have mentioned the Hellcat is a better choice. If NP still had the Saber I would have suggested that sail for your board as it leans more to crossover than the Hellcat does.

I have not sailed the 09 Hellcats but i found the 08 6.7m Hellcat draft moved a bit in the sail.

To make the right choice what type of sailing you want from your kit? You need to think of what fin you will be using etc.

Thanks for the response.
I bought the JP so i'd have a good allrounder. Works well with my other sails very happy with it.
Just keen on having a flat water/ blasting type sail in my kit. Plus have a bit bigger sail for lighter wind days.
As for fins I have the std 29 fsw that came with the board & a Meanline sc34b (speed/slalom shape) that I am yet to try.

I love the 09 hellcats. i have had the 5.7 going in 16 knots, and also in up to 30 with various boards. I have been using a 6.5 V6 from 2007 aswell recently, but i prefer the hellcat 5.7.
I was rigging the 5.7 on my combat x 400 skinny and it looked good.

The hellcat on the 430 x9 should be ultra sweet!!!

has anyone sailed a hellcat back to back with an equivalently sized saber?

I find my saber 7.2 a bit gutless for it's size.

The hellcat will be a better match for your board, they're a fast and stable sail with a reasonable manouverabilty.

Jason, the Sabre shouldn't be gutless. Assuming you are using the right mast you may be using too much outhaul? They work quite well with a little or even negative outhaul. Rig the DH to spec and then play with OH

I'm just used to more powerful sails with a fuller draft.

Downhauled to spec on an 460 X3 NP mast with even less than recommended outhaul it's still lacking for my liking.

My kit is very similar -6.7m Hellcat 5.7m firefly and 5.0 pryde NR and an X9 430 mast

I have a 6.7m hellcat that I am yet to really get going on my 09 JP FSW 101. In marginal conditions I felt the fin needed to be a little bigger - I only had the stock 29cm. I have a 32cm FSW select fin (which I haven't used onthe board yet) but I am thinking about a 34 or 36cm. Mind you, i was only using a 2001 30% NP mast at the time - the X9 should make a big difference I think.

I noticed the JP website indicates the Hellcat as "recomended" and the V6 as "can be used". I've always liked the idea of a V6 and it would probably be a little better at straight line flatwater blasting but I think the Hellcat would work a little better on the FSW.

Thanks a heap for the feedback guys. Sounds like the Hellcat is the go.
Will be going shopping tomorrow.

Wish I had done this earlier. Went to go for a sail this arvo, it was just too light for my 5.8 Alpha

Select to expand quote

Bluedog76 said...

My kit is very similar -6.7m Hellcat 5.7m firefly and 5.0 pryde NR and an X9 430 mast

I have a 6.7m hellcat that I am yet to really get going on my 09 JP FSW 101. In marginal conditions I felt the fin needed to be a little bigger - I only had the stock 29cm. I have a 32cm FSW select fin (which I haven't used onthe board yet) but I am thinking about a 34 or 36cm. Mind you, i was only using a 2001 30% NP mast at the time - the X9 should make a big difference I think.

The fin that comes with the board is very wave oriented and it doesn't have much drive, even though it looks quite big. I use a 28 freeride fin instead of the 27 that comes with my FSW92, and it feels much better. Also the board has a very thin and narrowed out tail so not the earliest of planers.

Hellcats are sick. means u get out on the water faster and you also sail faster

V6 all the way - tried the hellcat and it was nice and fast as said above but I found it needed much more constant wind to keep going.
I bought a V6 and love it, it takes piss all time to rig (all this hoop about cammed sails taking longer to rig is poo, racing sails maybe).
I find the range of the V6 is huge and the power delivery is great. Use it on a X6 mast.

I have to agree with Timford. I use V8's, but the HEllcats I've tested and Saber didn't have the power to take off and keep the speed up wind like V8's. The V6 should prettty much the same.
Also I had a Saber 5.7 that was fast on a reach but off the wind it slowed down and up the wind it slowed. The V8's don't have this problem.
Rigging time is very quick. My RSR's however took a lot of time and messing about. That is why I'm back on V8's.

There's so many things to concider here! You can talk different combos allllllll day.
Board and volume, fin and size, sail and size, mast and percentage, this is a never ending thread there are possibly thousands of combo's

NDH47 good call on the Hellcat though I personally would lean more towards the Firefly for your board. V6 is more for boards like Xcite ride. FSW is an awesome board fins are everything on this board so try as many as possible till you find the right ones. Good to see your using the correct masts This is often overlooked
and concidered not important by many and they quite OFTEN blame the sail or the board, fin and so on. I'm getting a Hellcat 5.7 for my supersport, All the fast guys here love em, can't wait!!!!!

Went & bought the Hellcat 6.7 last Saturday. Due to shift work & weather haven't tried it yet.
Did consider the Firefly or Excess, but purely wanted a flatwater/ blasting sail in my kit. Was advised at the shop aswell that the Hellcat was the go for what I was after.
Ideally I'd love to have at least one of everything. Boards included.

Once again thankyou all for the feedback.

What fin do you intend on using with it? I've just brought a 35cm for marginal conditions on the 6.7. I plan to step down to a 32cm once the wind is up a bit.

I splashed out on an X9 boom to match to mast. I've only ever had 30% carbon mast and alloy before so I can't wait to try them out and see the difference.

Select to expand quote

Bluedog76 said...

What fin do you intend on using with it? I've just brought a 35cm for marginal conditions on the 6.7. I plan to step down to a 32cm once the wind is up a bit.

I splashed out on an X9 boom to match to mast. I've only ever had 30% carbon mast and alloy before so I can't wait to try them out and see the difference.

I have a Meanline 34cm (speed/ slalom shape) & the std 29cm fsw that came with the board.

Hi, most of my sails are v6's and I would agree that they maintain speed through the gusts. The only thing I would add is the difference in water starting a cambered sail and a non-cambered. It's surprising how much water you can fit in a luff pocket of a cambered sail.
I find that the 6.0m v6 does me for the 92l fsw, but it can be a struggle water starting if you fluff a gybe, especially halfway through a session. Mind you, if I see any dark shadows around I can normally get back on the board and be smiling like a half -wit within 5 seconds.

Select to expand quote

NDH47 said...

Went & bought the Hellcat 6.7 last Saturday. Due to shift work & weather haven't tried it yet.
Did consider the Firefly or Excess, but purely wanted a flatwater/ blasting sail in my kit. Was advised at the shop aswell that the Hellcat was the go for what I was after.
Ideally I'd love to have at least one of everything. Boards included.

Once again thankyou all for the feedback.

I think you'll love the combination of sail and board, and with your Meanline slalom fin you will have a very fast set up. While the hellcat may not have the power / shape of a cambered sail in lulls, it can be tuned for good power. And the best thing is that it de powers easily, unlike cammed sails. So you can take advantage of the maneuverability of your FSW.