At the moment the kids and I are using a 2.5m trainer and a monofilm 4m surf sail to learn with. Im finding that the 4m is either working hard or doing nothing,and I wonder if that is property of the type of sail.
are there any suggestions for suitable types of sails that would be more suitable for beginners, say up to 5m
Yep, small surf sails have a reputation for being "twitchy".
Some surf sails are built so that they turn off positively, so that they're easy to depower when needed in the surf.
Trouble is, this kills their bottom end, they need a certain amount of wind to form their full draft. This would make them hard to use for a beginner wanting to start off in light winds.
From what I've seen, North and Ezzy make wave sails that turn on fairly early.
You can tell, by pressing on the rigged sail around the harness rope area, and seeing how much force is needed to fully deflect it.
Cambered sails are more stable but they don't turn off and are harder to rotate, so are not normally recommended for learners.
Thanks for that,
weve been rigging up 2 or 3 sails each time and each person has been using a different sail. Ive had an idea to cut the top out an older surf sail to about 4m and see how that goes.
