Hi,

I've got a 6.4m Neil Pryde RX1 sail that I bought secondhand, and I'm sure that the joiner bit that plugs the top batten into the mast is the wrong type. As in, the angle between the rod (which is attached to the leading edge of the sail) and the mast plug is wrong.

At the moment the top panel of the sail is always semi-furled, and if you flex the leading edge rod up it straightens out somewhat. It's not wear, there's no way that there's that much slop in the linkage, the swivel itself has maybe 5 degrees travel, this thing is maybe 30 degrees too low.

The guy I bought it off said that he had replaced that particular joiner.

Are those plug/rod assemblies easy to find these days? Can you modify them to sit up taller?

are you talking about the NP shear tip / ** batten?????

they will always bust and droop

well they did for me

G'day Ben
On the V8 the 'sheartip' is heldup by a piece of webbing sewn across the top of the luff pocket so assuming the rod to mastplug joint is tight this could be the problem and just needs a bit of restitching.
Also make sure U got the right size plug in the top of your mast

A mate of mine simply got rid of the 'sheartip' setup and converted it as on a conventional sail, get onto mum's sewing machine, sew in a piece of webbing for the top of the mast and cut the sail down to the top batten and sew a bit of edging on for reinforcement.

Nebbian, its the same as the Diablo. They never look real flash.
As long as you have replaced the swivel top, and tensioned the screw into end of the batten so the web in it connected to the sail is only just tight. its the best you will get it.
To replace:
(They don’t cost much Reg at Windsurfing Perth, gave me my last two)
Loosen the screw on the batten, and remove the tip. The batten will come loose with a bit of twist force from the top of the swivel.
Twist the top of the swivel about 180 deg and it should then slide off. (get you new one first and see how its done.) the bottom section then needs to be positioned so you can slide the off the webbing and out of the bottom section of the swivel top.
Reinstalling is exact opposite of what you just did.
Had to get a bit heavy handed with multi grips with the top of the sail to allow me to twist the webbing out of old and back into the new slots.

When you get the old one out you will see the wear between the mating surface on swivel, which is causing most of your issue.
Best of luck
Mineral

Nebbian, when you make the bevelled washer, email me a photo of what you made and what the sail looks like when you fit it. Be interested to see if it improves how you envisaged it should. Bit of a slack prick myself, so if yours works, will get one of my mates at work to make me one as well

I presume your sail will be as good as the Diablo, which for some reason I find in my limited experience a bloody good sail when its set correctly.

Mineral

Hey Haircut,

I was thinking of doing that, it was either take material off on one side or add material to the other side.

Next door neighbor has a lathe so I might just machine up some plastic to stick underneath the sheartip, that way I can adjust the tilt by rotating the washer around till it's right, then glue it.

quote:

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Remember what Robby Naish once said - "cam'ed sails are for people who can only sail in a straight line and need to compensate for their lack of skill by trying to go faster"

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I wonder if that's what he tells Finian, and is that why robbie can't go fast.

and uncammed sails are for those who can't sail in a straight line and can't sail fast so compensate by critising those that can

Had a sheertip with the same problem when I bought it second-hand. An easy fix- just back off the adjusting screw at the end of the sheertip, but when the sail is FULLY rigged. It should unscrewed till just loose! If its too tight it pulls the sheertip down. HOPE THIS WORKS FOR YOU!

Hi Mikey,

Even with the screw completely backed off, the tip still droops severely.

I went nuts on the lathe thisafternoon, machined up a bevelled washer out of plastic. I got the plastic from a small wheel I found at the tip. Total cost: $0.
I'll take some pictures and rig it up tomorrow. It looks like it should work, however. And the best thing is that I didn't cut any part of the existing sail, I'm just adding a small washer to the bottom of the swivel.

I tried it today, and it works!

Here are some pictures.
The swivel and washer
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=1841
The crinkly leech before the washer
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=1842
The taut leech after installing the washer
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=1843

The leech is now nicely taut (slightly floppy), without being flaccid like it was before. I reckon I've added about 0.02 sqm to my sail now, so should be able to go 0.1 knots quicker