Freerace sail Neilpryde Speedster 2018
The Speedster is new to the Pryde range and is described as a camberless freerace sail. However, "freerace" is usually associated with high-performance 2-cam sails for sporty riders. How does this fit together? Our aim was to design a sail with maximum performance while retaining the configuration of a camberless sail.
Sounds "nice", but what does it actually look like? What design tricks are used to achieve the control of a freerace sail without the camber that is usually required? Camberless sails always have certain advantages, such as easier rigging and better handling during manoeuvres and water starts. The mast pocket is of course much narrower than on camber sails, but slightly wider in the centre and upper area than on other camberless sails. This allows a lot of profile to develop and the mast can be easily pushed through when rigging. The profile is nevertheless very defined, which we achieve through the use of hollow tube battens and also through a higher basic tension than is the case with "normal" camberless freeride sails.
Your Hellcat model, which has been popular for years, has been dropped from the range. Is the Speedster simply the same concept under a new name or is there more to it? The Speedster is not very much based on the Hellcat, because last season our fundamental concept of how sails are designed changed significantly. Until then, our sails were always very strongly defined by the luff curve, i.e. the mast bend. The bend defined exactly how well a sail could twist and where the profile formed. We have recently started to define the sail profile of our sporty sail lines such as Speedster, V8 or the EVO racing sail more strongly via the arrangement of the individual panels.
Can you explain in more detail what the advantage is here? The profile can be cut into the sail not only via the bending curve of the mast, but also by sewing individual panels together under tension, so to speak. Sails designed in this way can also hold the profile better if the trim or mast set-up is not 100 per cent ideal. The Hellcat was very dependent on the correct bend curve, the Speedster is a little more tolerant in this respect. As a result, it feels tighter and accelerates better and much more directly in gusts.
Info under www.neilpryde.com
NeilPryde Speedster
Sizes5.7/6.2/6.7/7.2/7.7/8.2 square metresLuff415/434/454/472/491/511 cmFork (max)178/184/190/195/200/206 cmSlats7 (all sizes)Prices: 799 to 929 EuroInfo: www.neilpryde.com
