Someone asked for a pic of my older S1 ground down pulley to make it work with the seriously good Severne Cyclops. I used a Dremel with the pictured brush styled sanding wheel to grind down the middle pulleys just enough to allow the down haul rope to squeeze through. You want it a snug fit so the rope doesn't jump pulleys when you're pulling down. Still works with the normal extension but you need a bit more care to stop the rope crossing.

So easy to rig and de rerig, don't know why someone didn't think of it before.

It's perhaps worth pointing out that you don't actually need to do anything to older sails to use them with the Cyclops extension. The grinding down thing is a good tip but only if you want to use the extension with a loop.
You can of course just undo the end knot instead and reeve the rope the same way most extensions work.

I have taken the clear plastic handle off mine, and I tie a bowline knot loop to fit over the back of my hand each time when down hauling sails.
I can use the faster loop system with my newer (2019) sails but with the older sails you just take the rope tail through the left sheave and then back through the right sheave to give you the loop to hook over the rear sheave on the extension.

It's still pretty quick, and the new transverse alignment of the rear pulley on the extension still makes down hauling with 1 to 4 easy peasy.

If you can't tie a bowline knot then you can also downhaul with a rig puller or else use your harness spreader bar as a puller in the conventional way.

How you doing Basher ... ? ..... using Facebook alot to windsurf chat these days ? forums are slow to dead these days ... (on a + note - my computer time has dwindled right down these days ... )

One more thing to note about the Cyclops. This new extension comes with a metal spring clip collar which is fast - and good - to use. This replaces the pin and plastic collar adjustment - as seen on the Severne Grenade version I had before.

But the new collar system allows a lower setting on the tube of the extension and I have found I now need to set each sail with the collar one hole higher to get the extension I want for normal and maximum downhaul. So, where your sail says you need 12cms extension, you actually need to use the hole marked 14.

I am assuming other users will have found the same thing.

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seabreezer said..
How you doing Basher ... ? ..... using Facebook alot to windsurf chat these days ? forums are slow to dead these days ... (on a + note - my computer time has dwindled right down these days ... )

I noted a few years ago that seabreeze and other car forums im on have died down heaps with the increasing popularity of facebook. Can you recommend any good Facebook windsurfing groups ?

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R1DER said..

seabreezer said..
How you doing Basher ... ? ..... using Facebook alot to windsurf chat these days ? forums are slow to dead these days ... (on a + note - my computer time has dwindled right down these days ... )

I noted a few years ago that seabreeze and other car forums im on have died down heaps with the increasing popularity of facebook. Can you recommend any good Facebook windsurfing groups ?

"Windsurfing Advice & Tips (The Windsurf Bible)"

Yes same, finding the Cyclops needs 2cm more than grenade, that's bit disappointing,

The Cyclops is my favourite extension, not least because of how fast you can rig a wave sail. I doubt it can be improved upon.

But design issues are always interesting when you look past the headlines.

Here is a photo of my older Severne 'Wave Grenade' extension alongside my newer Cyclops version. Any extension is used to extend the mast (obviously) so here I have ligned up the bases of both extensions. As you'd expect, the holes in the tubing line up, so both extend the mast by the same amount.

However there are two things that are less obvious. Firstly, if you use the current split ring collar - shown as stainless steel here - the design means the amount extended is less than when a more-traditional pin and collar system is used - also shown here.
Putting a pin and collar fitting on the cyclops gives you more extension than the supplied split ring version, simply because the older collar sits above the pin.
So you can get more downhaul for any marked setting when using the pin and collar. I measured this difference at about 15mm. A significant amount.

It gets even more complicated when you actually downhaul your sail, because maximum downhaul is when the sail's tack pulley and the extension pulleys come together. And that's a function of where the sheaves sit in the extension base. (And, for example, if you fit bigger diameter sheaves in the extension base then you get less downhaul for the same marked setting. )

All the above might sound unnecessarily nerdy but, in practical terms, if you buy a 2020 Severne S1 sail in the 5.2 size, the recommended downhaul setting is 424cms - with the Cyclops 24cms extension setting on maximum when used with a 4m mast.
And I find I need to replace the stainless collar with my older collar and pin one to get enough downhaul on this sail, with that extension .
I could of course use the longer (36cms) Cyclops extension, set at 26cms.

^^^ interesting

Another idea for the extra 2cm needed is to make a ring to sit on top of the collar, bit of broken mast works well, and just use it for that one sail

Of course only to achieve 1-2cm - as it still needs to go up the mast far enough.

The other way to get a bit more downhaul on your sail when the extension is already on maximum setting is to put and extra 'spacer bung' in the mast tip - like the one they used to have on neil pryde sails to take the head cap webbing. That can gain you an extra cm of mast length.

We sail off shingle beaches and so anther option is to tape a pebble to the mast tip before you insert it in the sail (and, silly as that sounds, I have actually done this and it got me on the water on a day when I'd left my longer extension at home. )