For the upgrade to Comfort Class, the Duotone not only has the right handling characteristics, but also the necessary extras. The S_Pace can even be trimmed by hand with the least amount of trim. The info box for the right trim is already waiting at every sail corner, and the cambers folds easily onto the mast. The cleverly designed cambers can be adjusted tighter or looser against the mast using a small Allen key in the fully rigged sail.
In practice, we mainly used one trim on the luff - just below maximum. This offers an ideal combination of a lot of planing power and good control. Even without fully utilising the trim range, the Duotone planes away as the first sail, is very stable and compact in the hand and achieves a very good average speed. It doesn't look particularly small, but is nice and light and comfortably damped. With less luff tension, the mast sleeve loses tension and with tension up to "max", the top starts to work harder in choppy water without significantly improving the already good controllability. Ideally, there should be light to medium tension on the outhaul, as this additionally stabilises the sail.
The sail shows its best side in the jibes
The pressure point position does not produce excessive lift, which helps to keep the board under control, especially in strong winds. The centre of effort lies locked between the hands in a wide wind range, the sail shows slight but harmless load changes in stronger winds and only at the upper limit does the profile not remain as stable as on the tighter race machines in this group.
With its very sporty appearance, the Duotone is at the interface to the freeride camber sail class, where not all comfort has been thrown overboard for the last two per cent GPS top speed. The S_Pace also shows its best side in gybes: it is easy to sail and the roller cambers whiz around the mast as if on ball bearings of the highest quality.
surf summary of the Duotone S_Pace 7.8
Despite having three cambers, the Duotone is particularly easy to handle and provides a lot of comfort and damping in a wide wind range. It is not a specialised GPS top speed sail, but it covers the important category of freeride camber sails very well.
powerful and ggood planing, handling in the jibe, features
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sensitive to trim on the luff
Technical data Duotone S_Pace 7.8
- Sail weight: 5.6 kg*
- Mast weight: 1.75 kg*
- Sleeve opening: 109-154.5 cm*
- Mast used: Duotone Platinum SDM 460, 100 % carbon; 999 euros
- Price: 1159 Euro
- Infos under duotonesports.com
*surf measurement
