F1e Wave Slalom 5.4 and future size 6.4: ONE cam below the boom.
A wave sail with a cam? Is it just a gimmick? Let’s find out more about it.
The brand claims:
FLYING AND RADICAL ON A FOIL, BUT ALSO ON A FIN! Whether it’s foil or fin, the most important is to get on the water and have fun. The F1e is the perfect balanced sail to have exceptional performance both when using a foil or fin under your board. Once you decide between the wave-slalom model or slalom model.
Why not just use a SPY with more tension in the batten bellow the boom? So, if you take the spy in light winds the drive of the sail comes from below the boom. So yes, many people place less downhaul and less outhaul. This makes the whole sail fuller; it gets you going earlier but will be a touch slower. Same by placing more tension in the batten moves the profile back and cups foot slowing it down.
Why not just use a SPY with more tension in the batten bellow the boom? So, if you take the spy in light winds the drive of the sail comes from below the boom. So yes, many people place less downhaul and less outhaul. This makes the whole sail fuller; it gets you going earlier but will be a touch slower. Same by placing more tension in the batten moves the profile back and cups foot slowing it down.
What happens with the F1e 5.4 and 6.4? Placing a cam on the batten below the boom enables you to fix a profile to that batten. You do not need wind to fill the sail, the wind already has the correct profile to go over the sail to create drive. By giving the correct mast sleeve depth, the sail has the perfect entry angle.
Many people like to use the spy in high winds as it is noticeably light and stable.
So how can a cam on the batten below the boom be useful in a sail like this?
The cam creates a fixed profile below the boom. This will help you go through holes in the wind.
The deeper profile gives more downward force on the board. This gives you more control in overpowered condition and keeps the board on the water in choppy conditions. It will also give you more drive in the bottom turn when wave riding.
The fixed profile will give you more float in the jumps.
The sail will have faster acceleration.
So, the F1e Wave Slalom is just a SPY with a cam placed on the batten bellow the boom? Not really. The outline is taken from the SPY, but the profile is quite different.
The F1e Wave Slalom is classed as a hybrid sail, a Jack of all trades. Foil and fin. It is not really a hybrid… …It is a sail that gives the correct characteristics in all the wind range.
In light winds the drive is forwards and low, with a very neutral feeling. This is perfect for foiling. The deep profile below the boom and soft sail above the boom makes for incredibly good pumping, you will be amazed how quickly you can get up onto the foil.
As the wind increases the drive will move further back and a little bit higher, creating more pressure on the back hand. This means it is time to change over to a fin. The sail tells you what to use. There is no need to change sail sizes, just the board, or fin / foil.
Due to the exceptional design, the sail is amazingly easy to rig, and the rotation is exceptionally smooth.
In the F1e range there are four sizes now. 8.4m and 7.4m are the Slalom orientated sizes with two cams below the boom, 6.4m and 5.4m are the Wave Slalom sails with one cam below the boom.
This year we have been working a lot on the range and the concept. New sizes will soon be able to be evaluated for the 2023 range.
