Hey guys.
I am sailing in Germany. We have arround 40 14s here in my area.
Since some years we discuss about new equipment for the 14, because young sailor are leaving us after 2 years of sailing the 14. The go to sail bigger and faster boats. The most of us are thinking that the 14 has to be more "sexy"!
In April I bought the POWER-SAIL, but it was to small and I sent it back to Hobie Cat France.
In July I got a POWER-SAIL with the original Hobie14-Size.
Since July I just could sail 2 regattas and in one of the regattas there was no wind. So I just had one chance to check the sail in a race against the old sail.
Of course the sail is not class legal, but the other sailors were interested in the sail too and would like to see it in a regatta. So they promised to do no protests against me.
The POWER-SAIL is faster in all upwind-corses. But theres is a little problem with the material. It is very fix. (...sorry, I don't know a better english word for it.)
So if you do a mistake, you loose speed very quick. You need experience with this sail. If you have enough experience, you wil be very very fast.
In the down-wind course the old sail is a little bit faster. Maybe it would be good to cross on the downwind. For me it was not possible, because the lake where we sailed was to slim.
For the POWER-SAIL you need a mast-controller, because the mast-ratation has to be 50% more to the middle. Without this tuning you get no power into the rigg.
I bought the POWER-SAIL for 1.160,--€. ...with boom and battens!
For sailors in the US it is expensive because of the high €-course.
But here in Europe it is not expensive. Without boom and battens the sail would be cheap as a white old sail.
I Germany it is getting to cold now. So there will be no sailing for a while.
Also my english is not good enough to explain more. But if you have any question I do my very best to answer.
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Have A Hobie Day !!!