Why would one buy a uncambered sail if a cambered sail picks up faster and holds speed better? what advantages besides weight would a freeride sail have?
camberless sails are easier to gybe.
Easier to control in the air ie jumping
easier to control in any freestyle moves
lot more forgivving in strong gusts.
lot easier to learn with
cambered sails only real advantage is they pick up faster and hold speed a little better but not by much. gemerally they will have a wider low end range but as the wind gets stronger the difference gets smaller.
camberless sails are easier to gybe.
Easier to control in the air ie jumping
easier to control in any freestyle moves
lot more forgivving in strong gusts.
lot easier to learn with
cambered sails only real advantage is they pick up faster and hold speed a little better but not by much. gemerally they will have a wider low end range but as the wind gets stronger the difference gets smaller
A good ROAR in the favour of the uncambered sail![]()
Uncambered sails are easier to rig and are lighter.
If your racing, doing speed runs or going out in very light winds then a cammed sail would probably be of benefit.
You don't see many cammed sails under 6.5 square metres.
Why would you want cams?
I've got a 7.5 non cammed free race sails that will get going with my 100L 55wide free ride board in about 13 knots. I'm about 88kg
Yer depends a lot on what type of sailing you want to do.
for full slalom for sure you want a full cam sail.
freeride sailing - no real need to go with cam sails except maybe for the bigger sails 7.5 and above. across wind the no cam sails still have very good speed, there wouldn't be much in it. its going off the wind, up wind and going through the lulls where the full cambered sails excel.
All of the above, one extra, the battens and cams in a highly tensioned race sail cop a hiding during rigging, unrigging and gybing. Fine for one hard seasons use, but I've noticed in season two these things start to fail. That's just the price you pay for performance.
Am glad to hear all these good things about cammless sails since I just stated to get my quiver together. After sailing my cammed 7.4 yesterday i light winda I feared I had made a mistake. Am now reconfirmed. thanks
one thing i've found about cammed, and bear in mind this is just my opinion, is that the sail holds a near-perfect entry into the foil even with little wind in the sail. my un-cammed sails only become the proper shape with adequate wind in them. so if it's a light day (ie, at the low end of your sails range), the foil shape of a cammed sail promotes early planning, as the sail shape is efficient right from the get-go.
but with the huge luff tube, geez it's a pain to get the sail out the water when you're dunked, and every transition requires a violent flick to get the cams to rotate. if i can get away with it, i'll always rig an uncammed
I had only benefits with cambered sail regarding gybes and wind gusts... isn't a cambered sail made to have a better wind range and should work better in gusts than non camed sail? (I personally like Wave sails a lot more, but 7.6 Naish stealth kicks ass in 15-18knot breezes)
as far as gybes concerns, I felt a lot more power during the carve then with non camed sail, didn't loose that much speed and the board felt more stable during foot switch... i guess because of the sail still pulling the board... All in all, I use both but in strong wind wave/freestyle sail in light cammed sail.