I finally got my Hellcat out on my FSW today. Wind had dropped down to a very patchy 10-15kts so it wasn't the best of trials.

It was the first time out on my new X9 mast, boom and new NP base so it took me a while to get everything set up just right. I don't know about everyone else, but whenever I get new gear I'm in and out of the water changing settings - mostly dumb mistakes - extension set one notch to high, move the straps back outboard from when I last used it, run back up to the house to grab a screw driver to do this etc.

The first thing I noticed was how light the rig was. Unreal. Popped it up over my head to get down to the water - this can be a fair way up here in Mackay but for my beach it is about 100m at dead low tide. This was also great for messy light wind tacks and gybes where a save was so easy due to the light rig - heaps better than the 30% NP matrix mast and alloy boom that I had before.

On the few occasions I managed to get up on the plane, the sail/board accelated supper quick and felt really stable. The 35cm Select Eagle fin seemed to work great. Can't wait to try it out in just a little more breeze and after a little my work on settings.

Just had the same set up out in 15-20kts. Great. The rig felt super light, quick and stable. When powered up, I had to look at the sail just to check it was still there.

I have been really impressed by the way that the JP handles the chop up here. We get a messy 1m slop and with changing tides, swells are almost heading at right angles to each other at times.