Ezzy masts

Ok .. these sound interesting mix & match masts from Ezzy..
www.ezzy.com/masts/mix-and-match-chart/
Anyone had any experience with them ? They sound like my price range..

Great masts, been using them for a while now (3.5 years). Just make sure your sails are compatible (bend curve) and can be used with rdm's.

I bought a set of them recently to try and use them in my Neil Pryde V8s and my KA Koncepts, after I got annoyed by breaking (another) 460 SDM. I also have 3 Ezzy Infinities, which are made to work with these masts, so that bit was a no brainer. Breaking a couple of 460s is not that bad as I tend to sail them a lot and that size is my most used size, and I tend to buy them pre-loved :)

Yesterday I finally got around to rigging a 7m Infinity on the Ezzy RDMs to see what it set like. I haven't sailed any of them yet, but I will share my results on what they looked like.

The 7m is meant to rig on a 460 or a 490. I rigged it on a 460 only and it looked good. A nice full belly and the swoosh on the head of the sail was loose where you would expect it. The outhaul varied the depth of the sail as you would expect, and cam rotation was excellent.

Next I rigged it with a 490 top and a 430 bottom. Ezzy's recommendation is that you always rig a mix and match combination with the longer part at the top (i.e. longer tip and shorter base). When I rigged this way, it looked the same as the 460 tip and base did. I couldn't tell from the look of the sail that it was any different from a standard 460. Cam rotation was excellent, the same as the 460/460 combo. It looks like it is a perfectly usable combination, albeit without having sailed on it yet.

The final combination that I rigged was a 430 tip and a 490 base. This resulted in a very loose leech and a taught belly. The shape of the sails belly was very strange and the cams were very hard up and looked like this would end up breaking the battens. Cam rotation was bad and it would not stay in place. I have read before somewhere else that this puts the draft up high, which matches what the sail looks like. I would never sail this combination on this sail as it is obviously going to be bad, and would probably break the battens.

Now thinking about it, the only thing I regret is not trying to rig it on a normal 490/490 combination. I suspect it will rig perfectly normal. I will do this on the weekend just to compare.

Anyhow, that's my 2 cents worth.

First RDM's I've owned (400 & 430) and wouldn't consider using anything else (apart from my old spare Pryde X6 SDM if I happen to break one of my Ezzy's) due to ability to mix n' match halves as well as their 'legendary' durability! I use four sails from 4.5 up to 6.6 and only need 1.5 masts to cover this range. It is possible to mix n' match other masts such as the Pryde X6's which I did for many years prior to getting Ezzy RDM's, though you would need to have a good understanding of mast & sail bend curve characteristics to make it work. Here's an example of what happens to bend curves:
www.peterman.dk/windsurf-NP-X6-mast-study-780gb.htm

+1 REP for Ezzy RDM masts, as said above they are BOMB proof. I've had my mast wedged in the sand vertically, board about 2m above the waters surface and waves break into that clusterf*@#, nothing happened