8.8m Spirit on Hyper

[<Allan Cross>]

Hi Guys

Whats your feelings on the combination, anybody tried it? good bottom end?fast freeride sail?lightweight, any thoughts please?

Cheers Allan

[sukhdev]

Allan, no experience with the spirit but based on specs from the pryde website and from the few i've seen in real life, the sail has a fairly full profile. For the hyper, sails need to be rigged lean so as to cope with the accelaration and the resultant apparent wind increase. If you go for a freeride/freerace sail like the spirit, you will probably have to rig it over specs.

the biggest problem with sailing the hyper is getting used to the accelaration, bad rigging immediately shows up and makes handling difficult.

For example on the retros 7.5,9.0 2003, they were best rigged 4cm over max recommended for the hyper. The GTX 7.5 that I used on the hyper a fair bit is rigged 2 to 3cm over specs. Doesnt really matter which brand but you probably want to rig it as I've described in :

 http://bluefinz.com/html/Technique/RaceTuneRetro/RaceTuneRetro.htm

Get the best mast you can, this can make a huge performance difference.

[<Allan>]

Hi Sukhdev,

Yes I have a Nitro 2 8.7m but I cannot get the sail to plane early as it is a very flat sail that why i was wondering about the Spirit 8.8m.

So are you telling me stick with the Nitro??

Cheers Allan

[sukhdev]

Allan,

2 things really..the sails first:

the 8.7 (nitro 1? 2?) is cut quite flat but this can be fixed by sanding the batten tips; do a search on the gaastra forum or if you can't find it i'll write up a description. Basically the front of the batten below the boom and the 2 battens above the boom are lightly sanded to induce a softer tip. I had Barry do this on a 8.3 for me with good effect; since then I've done it on other sails. I tend to rig my sails very flat anyway, so I'm used to working the board onto the plane.

2nd thing..the board itself. In marginal conditions the hyper needs a little bit of technique to unstick; bear off alot and pressure your rear foot while hanging off the boom and pump onto the plane.

[<Allan>]

Hi Sukhdev,

So pse explain how I sand the tips of battens down then on my Nitro2  8.7m.

To give it a better bottom end, do  you think I should stick with the sail, as it also doubles up as my high wind formula sail.

I do have the option to change it for a Nitro 2 9m, would that make any differnce in bottom end power to help cose the hyper onto the plane

Cheers Allan

[sukhdev]

Allan,

ok here goes...

remove the 2 battens above the boom and one batten below the boom, unrig the sail, lay it flat and pull the batten out completely.

strip back the black wrapping off the tip from the tip itself to say 40 or 50 cm back.

Mark a point 10cm from the tip and a second point 30cm further from that (ie 40 cm from tip).

Press the batten down against the floor and observe the bend from the tip onwards. This bend is what you aim to change.

Use 100 grit paper and lightly sand each side of the batten about 5 or 6 firm strokes on each side. Check the bend again by pressing against the floor. There should be a noticeable difference. Don't over do it, test the sail out after the modification.

Basically what this does is soften the entry. If thats hard to understand look at at this way: imagine all the battens are hard. you release the outhaul and the stiffness of the batten has some "resistance"  to developing a smooth slightly deeper long curve. if the batten is now softened this curve will happen more easily. What you dont want is a "hump" just behind the mast, you want to retain the same smooth long foil shape but just give it a tad more curve.

This technique is effective in letting the sail be used in less wind than its designed for. Lighter sailors using a 8.x or 9.0 as their "big" sail will find this modification effective.

if this doesnt make sense let me know.
 
 [ 13. February 2003, 03:19 PM: Message edited by: sukhdev ]

[sukhdev]

Hi Allan, didn't answer your other two questions:

 

quote: To give it a better bottom end, do you think I should stick with the sail, as it also doubles up as my high wind formula sail.

I do have the option to change it for a Nitro 2 9m, would that make any differnce in bottom end power to help cose the hyper onto the plane

I'd stick eith the current sail and experiment, the batten mods,outhaul, downhaul etc. Going to a 9.0 is not going to buy you alot, firstly the 0.3 sq m jump is small and all the modern 8.x and 9.x race sails are really high wind formula sails.

[<Allan>]

Hi Sukhdev,

Yes I will try shaving down the batten ends, as far as the 9m sail that I was talking about, there was no cost involved I was going to get a straight swop for the sail.

[sukhdev]

Allan, if there is no cost involved it sounds good  

the batten softening trick would work well on the 9.0 too. You are not alone by the way, I've had some people who bought nitro 2 etc in the 8.x or 9.0 sizes say the same thing about low end power.

The reason I softened the tips on my nitro 1 8.3 was because I intended to use it for slalom.

[<Allan>]

Hi Sukhdev,

Yes it would be nice if the high wind formula sail would work as a good light wind slalom sail too!!! Im told that the Nitro 4 will have better bottom end aswell as the top end over the exsisiting Nitro's, we wait and see eh??

Im also looking curiously at the Nitro 4 11m too, as this is meant to be a real bottom end power house over exsisiting models, designed round 11m max fleets. which is what i need as Im only sail the UK national circuit with 11m as max size you can use and also Army fleets which i compete in are limited to 11m too.

Still lots of moeny if you consider the Ignition mast too???

Let use know as soon as you can regarding the Nitro 4s.

Cheers Allan Cross
(UK)

[sukhdev]

Allan, we should have nitro IV review up by next weekend i hope, the sails are literally in a ship in the harbor today and we should have them in our hands tuesday/wednesday..wind allowing. I'm going 12, 10.5, 9.3 and Meng 11,9.3 so we should be able to give feedback re the 11. Another size I am keen to test is the 7.6, this is cut for slalom so it will be interesting to see how it performs on the hyper especially.