camberless sails are easier to gybe.
Easier to control in the air ie jumping
easier to control in any freestyle moves
lot more forgivving in strong gusts.
lot easier to learn with

cambered sails only real advantage is they pick up faster and hold speed a little better but not by much. gemerally they will have a wider low end range but as the wind gets stronger the difference gets smaller.

camberless sails are easier to gybe.
Easier to control in the air ie jumping
easier to control in any freestyle moves
lot more forgivving in strong gusts.
lot easier to learn with

cambered sails only real advantage is they pick up faster and hold speed a little better but not by much. gemerally they will have a wider low end range but as the wind gets stronger the difference gets smaller

A good ROAR in the favour of the uncambered sail

Roar said...

camberless sails are easier to gybe.
Easier to control in the air ie jumping
easier to control in any freestyle moves
lot more forgivving in strong gusts.
lot easier to learn with

cambered sails only real advantage is they pick up faster and hold speed a little better but not by much. gemerally they will have a wider low end range but as the wind gets stronger the difference gets smaller.

I really disagree on a couple of points here unless I have misinterpreted them. Cammed sails are far better in strong gusts, and much less likely to backwind - which is why speed sailors will rig 1m bigger on average than when rigging a rotational sail. As the wind gets stronger the difference gets bigger - A 6m cammed sail will get you going in 15knots and keep stable with skill in up to 40knots (a local where I sail was doing some amazing gybes with a 6.3 in 40 knots, I couldnt believe it until I helped him de-rig!). In strong winds rotational sails become more uncontrollable and you have to change down a lot earlier.
Across the wind all other things equal then there is not much difference in top speed for me, but as I head off the wind it is instantly noticable.

You make your choice on the type of sailing you are doing, and the boards you have. If you have slalom boards then cammed is the way to go, giving you better ability through lulls and gusts, and much deeper downwind sailing for speed.
If you have freeride - then go for either - big cammed or big rotational - any bigger than 8m I would always prefer a couple of cams to hold the shape in the sail though.
FSW/Wave the choice is clearly rotational as you will be using a smaller fin so will not be driving as much off the foot on the rail at the back.

All of the above, one extra, the battens and cams in a highly tensioned race sail cop a hiding during rigging, unrigging and gybing. Fine for one hard seasons use, but I've noticed in season two these things start to fail. That's just the price you pay for performance.

one thing i've found about cammed, and bear in mind this is just my opinion, is that the sail holds a near-perfect entry into the foil even with little wind in the sail. my un-cammed sails only become the proper shape with adequate wind in them. so if it's a light day (ie, at the low end of your sails range), the foil shape of a cammed sail promotes early planning, as the sail shape is efficient right from the get-go.

but with the huge luff tube, geez it's a pain to get the sail out the water when you're dunked, and every transition requires a violent flick to get the cams to rotate. if i can get away with it, i'll always rig an uncammed

Trousers said...
... and every transition requires a violent flick to get the cams to rotate...

Not always. I have two sails the same make/model and one is rigged on the spec mast and one is not. The non spec requires a hard flick and/or a kick to the bottom cam after a gybe. The matched mast rotates like a dream - no different than a rotational. When it's lying flat on the beach, it only requires the gentlest touch to rotate.

Which brings us to another point - cammed sails are less mast tolerant than raf's

Windxtasy said...

In what ways are cammed sails harder to gybe?

rotation can be difficult as the above comments said, you need to kick the cams around on some cam sails.
cam sails also have more pull and acceleration out of the gybe, for sailors that havnt used cams sails before this can put you off balance so it does take a little longer to master.

I had only benefits with cambered sail regarding gybes and wind gusts... isn't a cambered sail made to have a better wind range and should work better in gusts than non camed sail? (I personally like Wave sails a lot more, but 7.6 Naish stealth kicks ass in 15-18knot breezes)

as far as gybes concerns, I felt a lot more power during the carve then with non camed sail, didn't loose that much speed and the board felt more stable during foot switch... i guess because of the sail still pulling the board... All in all, I use both but in strong wind wave/freestyle sail in light cammed sail.