Gaastra Phantom and Severne Overdrive

Hi All

Happy holidays and congratulations for dodging the end of the world on December 21.  We live to sail some more.  Awesome!

We have had some fantastic sailing over the past few weeks and some equipment models are making their mark.  Karel, an extremely fast visiting sailor has bought a 2013 Phantom 7.8m and Andy has purchased a 2012 Overdrive 7.5m.  Both of these sails are phenomenal.  Fast and easy.  I almost keep up across the wind on my Savage 7.8 but through the lulls, upwind and downwind these sails are easily faster.  No question.  Andy is now as fast on big stuff as he is on the smaller kit.  The Overdrive is a mighty sail - huge low end grunt and seemingly limitless top speed.  I have not ridden either of these sails yet despite both guys kindly offering them to me to test (I was too busy having fun on my stuff and exhausted myself).  I trust both of the guys however and have no hesitation in recommending either sail to anyone who wants to go really fast on this size of sail.  Both guys are really impressed with their sails and both are smoking on the water.  Ample reasons for an endorsement!
My impression is that the Gaastra is a bit softer than the Severne leading me to suspect that the Phantom may be better suited to the lighter sailor while the Overdrive could be a better bet for the aggressive sailor who has the weight and strength to keep it trimmed.  Both of the guys have vowed never to own another pure race sail given the performance and ease of these two machines.

Andy's Tabou 3S 96l is still proving a giant killer.  He sailed against two of our premier racers a while ago in wild conditions.  They had full slalom sails of course and one was on his small iSonic.  Both were given a spanking by Andy on the 3S and a 5.2m Gaastra Remedy.  He uses a Select SRX in the wild conditions.  I am now convinced that most of us have no need for pure slalom kit in the smaller sizes.  I now have a slightly different take on an ideal sail and board quiver and will discuss this in a future post.

That is all for now.  In the next post I will discuss some concerns regarding the 2013 Manta range and the 2013 Overdrive.  I've just noticed that Select have brought out completely new fin ranges and I will be examining these and discussing them with Anthony if I can corner him.  I will hopefully have some thoughts about these fins and some reservations to share with you.

Good winds