Canefire and Gregor fins - 2

Hi

I was fortunate to get a windy day on Tuesday and was able to sail both fins.

I bolted the Canefire under my Falcon 113, rigged the 7.8m Savage and set off in slightly less wind than I would have liked but still sailable.  The fin performed impeccably.  It steams upwind without a hint of spinout and blasts downwind with blistering speed.  All of this is achieved with no drama whatsoever.  This is one piece of equipment you do not need to worry about.  It does its job and simply takes care of business allowing you to concentrate on other things.  I was having so much fun that I had to force myself in to change to the Gregor.

The Gregor is an altogether different fin.  The design is for downwind blasting and I have to say that it performs well in this role.  The problem for me is that on an upwind tack I hit some chop and the fin simply let go.  I have seldom had such a complete spinout and even when I slowed right down was still unable to get it to grip again.  I could not recommend this fin to general blasting sailors.  Perhaps if you only sail downwind legs you may consider it but not for me.  Fran, the maker of these fins is keen for me to try two of his other models and Juan will send them in due course.  The Gregor story still has a way to go - watch this space.

To conclude, I have to say that the Canefire Carbon is the best slalom fin for my brand of sailing that I have ever sailed (I have yet to sail a VMax.  When I do I may change my mind about this).  I thought that the 40cm size of the Canefire may be a bit small for the 7.8m Savage but the fin handled every situation with contemptuous ease.  Given a choice I would have two of these fins for the 113 - a 40cm for the smaller sails (7.0 and down) and 44cm for lighter days with the big sail.  The reason I think one can go that big is because the chord length is less than the other fins I use with the board.  Also, Juan's 40cm fin was so easy and settled that I think you can push the size up a bit with no loss of control.  Being carbon, the fin is so narrow (like a knife blade) that the extra drag from 4 more cm should be negligible.

Those are my thoughts on the two fins.  Thank you Juan Alonso for sending me your fins to test - much appreciated and I will ensure that you get them back in good condition.

Thank you Vector for this classy blade - awesome job guys!

Talk to you soon