RDM mast extensions
It's just a piece of tube with a clamp - and yet it's the part that's often the reason why the O-tone when rigging is only free from the age of 18: ropes that don't want to go through the pulleys, run back and forth, the extension slips off your foot - and meanwhile the Dyneema loop slowly cuts off your fingers. Here you will find a wide selection of extensions, with the right one for every sail. So that it rolls like clockwork in the future. Here are a few general findings from our test:
Many brands, fewer variants Eleven brands in the test, but there are significantly fewer brands that produce or design their own sails. North Sails and NeilPryde show completely in-house developments, the new Severne extension also has a largely independent design. The other brands combine the available tubes, trim cups and adjustment systems quite cheerfully. The identical trim cup can be found a total of nine times: At Gaastra (Team Alu, Team Carbon), the cheaper North extension, RRD, ProLimit (Alu Skinny, Carbon Skinny), Simmer and Unifiber (Alu HD, Carbon). It is also worth comparing the prices. However, not everything that looks identical at first glance is actually identical on closer inspection. For example, the trim fitting on the shiny golden Unifiber extension is made entirely of stainless steel, while ProLimit offers the same part at a lower price, but only with an aluminium block. The stainless steel clamps will certainly last longer. With only three failures in six weeks of testing (Tecno Limits Alu: bent; Unifiber Alu RDM: knob broken off; Simmer Carbon: carbon already splintered before use), the overall result is pleasing, but the testers once again particularly liked some of the extensions.
The test of the 21 RDM extensions is available below as a PDF download:
