Ideal Quiver - Some Questions and Answers

Hi

Here are some questions from Nils which I include on this post in case some of you don't feel like opening the comments section:

Hi Phil,
your personal weight would be of major interest to be able to scale up/down your quiver to other sailors. Apart from that I have two questions.

The first one is regarding the 3S 76. Did you notice it is US-Box and a shape from 2009? I think it could have very different properties to the newer shapes and as far as I know you won't be able to find a fast fin for US-Box.

My second question is about your selection of sail sizes in the 5.x to 6.x area. As far as i know you sail a 6.4 and a 5.6 at the moment but would possibly opt for a 6.4 and a 6.0 now. My question is: why? Are 6.4 and 5.6 spread to wide for your needs? I think you wrote that Andy is using a 6.0 and 5.2, which is totally different to your selection. Is he that much lighter or what is the reason?

Kind regards from freezing Germany
Nils

Here is my response:

Hi Nils

My weight is 90kg.  Andy is about 97kg I think, and he is much stronger than I am.   Unfortunately the 3S 76 comes with a US box and this was the same in 2009.  I include a picture below of a fast Select US box fin of mine.  It was their Wave Freestyle model which is no longer in production but you may find one in a supplier’s store.  This exact fin would be awesome under a 3S 76 from any recent year.  

Having said this I am not too concerned about having a fast fin on a very small board.  The reason for this is that when I am on such a board the water condition is pretty wild and control is far more important to me in these conditions than speed.

My selection of smaller sails is different to Andy’s.  As you say he goes down from a 6.0 to a 5.2 and this combination is optimal for him.  He holds the 5.2 down when I am either sitting on the beach frightened, or on very small wave stuff.  

My ideal sail down from the 6.4 is a Cross 5.6.  At the moment I have a 6.0 Remedy which I need to hold onto because it is still in decent condition.  My replacement for this sail will be a 5.6m Cross.  At the moment I can hold the 6.0 into really strong wind and quite comfortably step off this size onto a 4.8m wave sail.  In these winds Andy is blasting up and down on his 5.2 leaving me to play on the wavy stuff.  

Your question about the jump from my 6.4 to a 5.8 is interesting.  I am holding the 6.4 into really strong winds at the moment (I have it on North’s Shox system which allows me to hold it when others are on 4.7 wave kit) so I don’t envision any problems.  You will note on the blog that I give several options for the 6.4 and 5.6 sail choices.  We all sail differently and the 6.0/5.2 combo works for a large number of sailors.  My sailing partner Gareth swears by his 5.3m Severne Gator and he can step off his Gaastra Savage 6.7 onto this sail (this is not optimal but it can be done.  He also has a Gator 6.0m) so there are no hard and fast rules around these smaller sizes.  I enjoy sailing overpowered so my ideal sizes will work for me.  The 6.0/5.2/4.7 combo could actually be better for a greater number of sailors.

All the best

Phil