Hi, what size sails are you looking at using with your new board? we have no plans at present to go wider than 80cm at present, seems the 80 does the trick, I'm slightly heavier than you and use the 75 as a light wind option, however the biggest slalom sail I like to use is the 8.4.

Are you french ?

Hi DJ

I just returned from the IFCA Slalom Europeans Youth/Masters in Kiel (Schönbergerstrand, Germany), where I raced in the master class. Under the IFCA slalom42 rules I registered this year's SL62 & 80, the minimum wind limit being 11knots. I'm rather light so I registered 8.4 tr5 as my biggest sail, but all others had registered up to 10m (e.g. 8.6 & 9.5 in NP sizing).

Apart from the last day where the wind gusted over 25 knots I did virtually all races with the SL80 & 8.4 in winds varying from 11 to 20+ knots. In fact, my best result (a first place in a semifinal) was on that combo in about 11knots of wind (the second semifinal was subsequently cancelled because the wind dropped below the limit). Despite the fact I was carrying at least 1sqm less sail area I had no trouble planing away at the marks, and even increasing my lead as the heat progressed.

Last week was actually the first time I sailed the SL80 in competition, and I'm truly impressed by the board. It has plenty of speed rivalling with anything else in that segment (there were JPs, SBs, Tabous etc in the race), and has amazing control when the wind picks up. I was using a C3 Venom 48cm and a Venom proto 48cm (which has more chord length than the standard Venom).

By the way, I have tried the board with 10.0 tr5 and it works fine. I just don't need that much sail area in slalom racing.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

c