Well to add to this thread I picked my 2017 NP hellcats on Saturday after a couple months wait - 6.7 & 7.7 ...first new sails ever! tossed up quite a lot over getting the newer versions of the Ryde or the new V8 but the hellcat is sold as essentially NPs best no cam sail so went that way
Ive changed over from 7.5 2015 Ryde & 6.7 2014 hornet. Primary sail I've used over the past two seasons was the Ryde so any comparisons I make wil generally be verses this
Rigged the new 7.7 on the lawn when I got home ....first issue needed a 490 mast which I didn't have so ended up with 42 ext on a 460. Rigged ok regardless ... took a lot more effort to get down haul on but with 20mm gap at the pulleys Set pretty well straight out of the packet Although needed a little batten tension to get creases out. May still get a 490 mast but just getting over the buy price of the sails at the minute and still about 150mm in the mast from the ext
First sail yesterday => board tabou 125 rocket, sailer 80kg avge ability, on the river very flat...wind according to seabreeze 15knots gusting to 20k but think was a bit lighter than this. Again took a bit of effort to get down haul on and rigged with essentially no out haul as wasn't supper windy Plus was so so flat.
Impression after 1st 1.5hr-2h session =>
- super super stable ie no huge front arm push pressure when the gusts come through not like the Ryde at all in this regard
- bottom end a bit lacking and ended up significantly increasing batten tension/ length over the sail to try and get some more shape in the lower batten ie wound in about 7-10mm on each of the lower battens and I think it was getting better
- acceleration is simply amazing when hit by a gust ie almost instant and feels smooth not a battle which the Ryde always was all over the place
- Gybes like the Ryde ie easy
- the 7.7 feels much bigger than the 7.5 Ryde ie With nearly 300mm longer mast req and 60mm on the boom I guess this should be obvious but feels a lot bigger
In short happy but need more time to get the initial low end working. Hopefully try the 6.7 later this week
, super tight leech up to batten 3 and then super loose or is it how NO sails look? Hopefully the 490 rigs better.
