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AMERICAN WINDSURFER MAGAZINE
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FREERIDE 5.25
Mast: 430/21 Boom: 172-176
Battens: 5 Cams: NONE
Weight: 6.5/3.0kg
Speed: 4.33 Power: 4.33 Stability: 4.33 Range: 4.33 Wtrstart: 4.33 Overall: 4.33 Price: $408
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AEROTECH FREERIDE 5.25
Like the Windwing Catalyst Airs, this is a convertible sail with removable cams. Except for the window, which is reinforced, it’s totally X-ply.
SCORE: (3 ratings)
Speed 4.33 Power 4.33 Stability 4.33 Range 4.33 Waterstart 4.33 Overall 4.33
COMMENTS: None
STAFF: Newfie gave it straight 5’s, including his added category of Handling. “I rode this sail with the two cams removed and found it handled very similar to a wave sail,” he said.
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ULTIMATE CARVE II 6.25
Mast: 460/25 Boom: 186-190
Battens: 6 Cams: 2
Weight: 8/3.8kg Speed: 4.00 Power: 4.00 Stability: 4.33 Range: 4.33 Wtrstart: 4.00 Overall: 4.13 Price: $408
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ULTIMATE CARVE II 6.25
Like the Bump and Jump sails, this line was designed to be affordable and durable (without sacrificing performance, says Aerotech, naturally). Smaller sizes are more oriented toward bump-and-jump sailing, while the larger sizes have cambers. The 4.75 had five battens with one cam, the 6.25 had six battens with two cams.
SCORE: (6 ratings)
Speed 4.0 Power 4.0 Stability 4.33 Range 4.33 Waterstart 4.0 Overall 4.13
COMMENTS:
Said retailer Gary Stone, who gave it one 4, two 4-pluses and two 5’s, “The sail felt like it wanted to go fast, but it was limited by the Starboard Fish board. The cams didn’t easily rotate.”
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VMG 7.5 RACE
Mast: 490/29 Boom: 205-209
Battens: 7+ Cams: 4
Weight: 10/4.6kg Speed: 3.67 Power: 4.33 Stability: 3.67
Range: 3.67 Wtrstart: 3.33
Overall: 3.73 Price: $639
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VMG 7.5
Aerotech claims that this line, from 5.5 to 10.5, might be the lightest, fastest race sail ever built. That’s a big boast if you’re not a World Cup winner, but our seven-batten, four-cam 7.5 was indeed light at 10.0 pounds, especially impressive considering it was 50 percent X-ply. Because our testers weren’t racers, and they may not have even gotten beyond the break, we’ll not use the low score in Speed as credible evidence of anything.
The VMG features Reactive Leech Technology, which is Aerotech’s mechanical approach to gain maximum aerodynamic efficiency at the head of the sail, by using a rod off the tip of the mast. Unlike Windwing and Pryde, however (but like the Sailworks X-T), the tip of the leech is no higher than the mast.
SCORE: (3 ratings)
Speed 3.67 Power 4.33 Stability 3.67 Range 3.67 Waterstart 3.33 Overall 3.73
COMMENTS:
“Rotated very easily,” said a tester who gave it a 2 in Waterstart because the wide mast sleeve and luff pocket bagged a lot of water.
“Handled gusts really well.”
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