Wondering if anyone has experiences, good and bad, with the North Power.XT extensions and bases.

Might be very useful for me to be able to adjust downhaul on the water for long sessions far upwind of the beach, when wind is likely to change.

Worried about sand jamming it up.

If you treat them well & rinse each sail the later/modified ones arent too bad, pretty much replace wheel & spring each year.

They are very user friendly for rigging. On top of rinsing well make sure the sail foot doesn't catch the handle and pull it sideways as that can snap it off ( found that out the hard way). That said I have been very happy with mine and would buy another .

Mines never been washed (about 2-3 yrs) and still working fine. Although I do find them a bit fiddly to use.

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I am a fan.
No issues with sand jamming them, so far. The rope condition is critical and it is an unusual diameter, so not easy to find. It will wear eventually and begin to slip. Make sure you downhaul as much as you can by hand to reduce the wear on the line by the pulley.
Very easy to adjust on the water and easier than a winch on big race sails.

I like them. Works as expected. No problems to report.

They are good for the last little bit of tension.

Love them. Spares can be expensive. Cheaper to buy another. I have used them since they appeared on the market and prefer to all my other ones. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezie.

My worst experience with one was when I was buying it. The young whipper-snapper selling it said "oh, one of those extensions for the old men".

So I had to berate him, saying that with age comes wisdom...after he regained consciousness.

Had them for as long as nazsail. The rope on one started slipping after many year's use, but it was time to replace anyhow. Always good with North sails, as the pulleys, or cringle on older sails, is compatible, but can be a pain if you want to use it on other brands (like KA) where you can't loop the rope through the pulley easily.

I love them, but still have normal extensions as well.

I replace ropes each year with formula line, once bedded in no slippage. I only use KA, no issue on the years since 2009 that I know of....but you do have to thread it thru pulley, which can take seconds I love the sound they make as you de-rig, but beware it can scare the crap outta skittish dogs...

Must depend on the KA sail model. Works ok on some post 2009 sails but not others. (Ok on a Kult.not on stealths)

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MikeyS said..
My worst experience with one was when I was buying it. The young whipper-snapper selling it said "oh, one of those extensions for the old men".

So I had to berate him, saying that with age comes wisdom...after he regained consciousness.

Had them for as long as nazsail. The rope on one started slipping after many year's use, but it was time to replace anyhow. Always good with North sails, as the pulleys, or cringle on older sails, is compatible, but can be a pain if you want to use it on other brands (like KA) where you can't loop the rope through the pulley easily.

I love them, but still have normal extensions as well.

AFAIK the new version can work with any sail pulley orientation.

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MikeyS said..
Must depend on the KA sail model. Works ok on some post 2009 sails but not others. (Ok on a Kult.not on stealths)

Koncepts

Err, yeah, sorry. I meant Koncepts. They weren't in the garage when I posted.

Anyway, the problem is that on some sails there is less than a rope thickness (4-5mm?) between the cheeks of the pulleys and the webbing connected to the tack (the rod on the upper right of this picture- not a KA pulley by the way). So you can't simply loop the downhaul line through the block. You have to unthread an end of the line from the XT, lace it through the pulley and then back into the ratchet cleat. It's a PITA. So my suggestion is to check that the line will easily loop through the cringle or pulley of any sail you are intending to use the XT on. If it will loop through, life is sweet.https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUgDerLZmJajFQ34bs8eXy6SIkjBy-TzI7-imb7FmV4SX5vOfwpA

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MikeyS said..
Err, yeah, sorry. I meant Koncepts. They weren't in the garage when I posted.

Anyway, the problem is that on some sails there is less than a rope thickness (4-5mm?) between the cheeks of the pulleys and the webbing connected to the tack (the rod on the upper right of this picture- not a KA pulley by the way). So you can't simply loop the downhaul line through the block. You have to unthread an end of the line from the XT, lace it through the pulley and then back into the ratchet cleat. It's a PITA. So my suggestion is to check that the line will easily loop through the cringle or pulley of any sail you are intending to use the XT on. If it will loop through, life is sweet.https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSUgDerLZmJajFQ34bs8eXy6SIkjBy-TzI7-imb7FmV4SX5vOfwpA

I concur...

I reckon they're awesome.
Been using them for years and since they changed to the steel spring, they don't slip at all.
I've tinkered with mine and added pulley wheels and a cleat so that the angle lines up perfectly with the rope direction.

People shouldn't see the biggest advantage as the lever system when rigging. Down haul tools all do that well.
The big advantage is being able to add and release down haul in seconds, while out on the water.

One sneaky thing a mate and I did was when we changed to RDM masts.
It seemed the cost of the north XT RDM (carbon) extension was ridiculously expensive.
- so we simply separated our SDM North XT plastic bases (that contain the ratchet system) from the Alloy tube and inserted it straight into the bottom of Chinook rdm extensions (that we already had) ie '2 button' extension with the bulb shape at the bottom.

They fit perfectly, work a treat and saved us hundreds $$$$ : )

We call them Chinorths

I have a Carbon Chinorth and an Alloy Chinorth....

Can you increase or decrease the downhaul with the XT while the sail and base are connected to the board?

Absolutely you can.
Takes just a few seconds and as someone earlier said, it makes adjusting the outhaul seem time consuming.

after reading all this.l going to buy one.you cant go wrong. Sick of coming in walking to the car just too tweak my downhaul with that little tool that lm forever loosing or misplacing.

If your buying a new one, make sure you get the updated model.
It allows better for the pulleys to line up perfectly.
this one...
https://www.north-windsurf.com/deu/nodes/display/products/power-xt-2-0-series

If you buy second hand to save money, make sure you get one with a steel (not plastic) spring.

It takes a while to get familiar with it, because there are idiosyncrasies, but persist and you won't go back.
If you know someone who's got one, it's worth watching them and how they use it.