AC-X Vs AC-Z: The difference.

If once upon a time there was a choice between a no cam sail or a cam sail, now with POINT-7 you have also the choice between a no cam sail and the AC-Z. Cam haters you could find out that you love cams sails, cam lovers… you might start liking the idea of a few cams less to make life more comfy!

On the water the 2 sails have a very different feeling. The AC-Z having a deep low profile with the 2 cams below the boom, gives the nice drive that is needed in dodgy conditions of gusty light winds. The pull of the sail is towards the front center of the sail, which keeps the board easy and balanced over the water, but you need a bit more feeling to use the back-hand power to go upwind. The feeling is like a pure cam racing sail, but lighter. The AC-X has a perfect centered profile, which gives the same pressure on both arms, and it gives an easier back hand power to go upwind. To jibe, even the  AC-Z feels like not having cams, even if the 2 cams and lower sleeve are as big as the AC-One! The sleeve being this big could bring doubts about the water start, but as it’s only under the boom, to bring out the sail from the water it’s as easy as a no cam. If the cams are rotated to the wrong side, a little bit of technique is needed to turn them. If you really hate cambers in the rigging process, and you really hate even wanting to learn, then the AC-X is the solution, but the AC-Z has an easy wide sleeve at the bottom which gives straight access to the mast to enter in one shot, without having to wrinkle up the sail, but yes you need to learn to put the cams on them mast after having put some downhaul. If you decide to go for a full set of AC-Z or AC-X that is a good choice as you will have the same feeling for all the sizes. So, if you really do not care of cams, go for the AC-X, and if you like the idea of that extra drive, go for the AC-Z. If you decide to go for a mix, certainly go for AC-Z from 7.8 up to 9.4. Therefore, as the wind is light when you use those sizes, or it could be the biggest sail, so for planning and non-planning conditions, the extra lower profile will give me the extra drive to have a higher performance in the gusts or lulls. From 7.5\7.9 down to smaller sizes, normally the wind is more stable, and this always allows also to a no cam to keep high performance , therefore an AC-X could be the solution.