Hello
I am a race-boarder and generally sail on a Starboard Phantom or Exocet RS 380.
Sail-wise, my preferred racing sail is a Barracouta 9.5. These are very powerful and usable - combined with a Slake 550 mast.
On occasions, I have also been using a Kona CAM-less sail. I owe the 9 meter size, which is designed to be used according to your weight in the (no-defunct?) Kona competition.
I found the sail excellent, light, responsive and I have been thinking of upgrading to the 9.8 meter.
What I like about the sail is that it is quick to rig, and very easy to use the down-haul to de-power the sail. It works well if I only have an hour to sail - it takes me 10 mns to set up the whole thing - a bit like going out on an LT on steroids.
Has anyone any experience on the 9.8 Kona sail? Any feedback compared with a raceboard Severne, or Loft or equivalent?
And does anyone know if there is still stock of the Kona sails in Australia?
Cheers Christophe
I thought the 9.8 was awful, but that was on a Kona class rig which isn't very stiff. On a higher quality mast and boom it might be ok. I found it to be very back-handed as soon as it was powered up, and to have really mediocre upwind speed compared with my race sails at the time (Point7). Much much faster to rig though, and very pumpable in light wind, so for the application you're considering not a bad choice. For a combination of easy rigging and high performance the Ezzy Cheetah 9.5 would be an excellent option and the cammed Lion even better. Older narrow-luffed NP V8 would be excellent too.
Select to expand quoteAwalkspoiled said..
I thought the 9.8 was awful, but that was on a Kona class rig which isn't very stiff. On a higher quality mast and boom it might be ok. I found it to be very back-handed as soon as it was powered up, and to have really mediocre upwind speed compared with my race sails at the time (Point7). Much much faster to rig though, and very pumpable in light wind, so for the application you're considering not a bad choice. For a combination of easy rigging and high performance the Ezzy Cheetah 9.5 would be an excellent option and the cammed Lion even better. Older narrow-luffed NP V8 would be excellent too.
He is not used to Race sails though... he is talking "Raceboard" sails ... they are tight leached & very back handed IMHO by comparison... so maybe the Kona sail would not feel so bad...
