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My '7' sail is the original on 1060 (September 2014). It gets used all year round in anything over 12kts, has been out in 30+kts. Lots of capsizes, North Sea sailing here at North Berwick.
I haven't noticed any deterioration in performance, though the sail certainly isn't as crisp as it was and looks a bit grubby. Perhaps an elite level sailor would notice a performance difference, but at club level there are many other factors which have a greater bearing on performance, eg intensity of hangover, how hard you are prepared/able to hike, how close you are prepared to go to the rocks to keep out of the tide, strategy upwind, surfing technique downwind etc etc!
My '9' sail is the same age but only tends to get used on lighter days, which we generally don't get too many of here. It has still had a fair amount of use though. This is probably where a performance reduction would be more noticeable.
Both sails are holding together really well with no loose stitching/battens etc.
The only reason I would change at the moment is to get an elastic bolt-rope sail - mine are the original rope ones. However an occasional squirt of McLube in the track helps with both hoist/drop and downhaul adjustment.
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01/07/2016 13:57:12
Posts: 0
My 7 sail has had over 40 outings in about 18 months use; including: many capsizes, in light as well as strong wind use, & some violent whip lashing in extreme wind in the winter series.
A friend I've known some 20+ years who sails Lasers decided he'd buy a new sail recently, because his 18 month old sail was beyond its best. Same age, same sailing. So before the Nationals I had mine checked over by a sail maker, Pinnell & Bax.
They found one of the battens had come out of its pocket, otherwise All OK!!
Performance, or lack of at Nationals, not down to the sail, more the guy holding the sheet I fear.
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22/06/2016 09:16:41
Jonathan Rickels
Posts: 104
Yes - that sail was far too fast in the last race at the nationals! I replaced my 9 for the nationals and it did make a difference. Still use the old one for club racing, but mine is about as old as you can get because 1023 was one of the early demo boats. It's definitely tired but the shape still looks OK.
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20/06/2016 17:11:27
Gareth
Posts: 170
Yep, the 9 sail I borrowed for the event seemed perfectly ok.
From new i've always received some creases and wrinkles from the 7 sail, although i've not noticed any detriment in speed as yet. Most of the creases are due to the stopper nipple on the front of the mast and also from pulling on loads of kicker and downhaul so that the sail is so flat you're almost bound to get some funny creases, etc.
I do think the 9 shapes a lot nicer though generally.
I doubt they'll last as long as the RS600 mains but the 600 mains are a lot more expensive and also a different cloth (which is changing due to not being available any more).
I'm sure the sails are comparable if not longer lasting than Laser sails? I haven't had a laser for a while, but mine always looked like a bag of nails ;o))
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20/06/2016 16:02:26
Chunky
Posts: 136
Having used my RS Aero 7 sail most off the time for 18 months including quite a lot of big breezes as we have had 2 windy winters it is showing some ware, but still fine for non Championship racing. I think that is very good at the price, especially when you factor in the number of times we have gone out in 25kn+ when racing was cancelled!
My RS Aero 9 sail has been used a little less and in less breeze and I still regard it as fully competitive. In fact I lent it to our webmaster, Anthony York who won 2 races at the UK Nationals to come 2nd!
and copied from Facebook, comment by Gareth Griffiths, 18 June;
'I haven't found any wrinkles but definitely after two years needed new sail for open meetings. The shape still looks good but it just isn't crisp and seems to lack a shade of power upwind.'
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20/06/2016 15:41:32
Peter Barton
Posts: 4676
Now that everyone's sails have had a year+ of use, I'm wondering how sail shapes are holding up. My 7 sail has about 20 days of use and I'm seeing some stretch in the 4 radial panels above the window. The result is some wrinkles running from the clew up to around the mast joint. The mast joint is tight so I don't think these are the same as the 'Laser mast joint wrinkle' problem.
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18/06/2016 18:10:06
ddubois
Posts: 8
