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AMERICAN WINDSURFER MAGAZINE
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HOT DIVA 4.3
Mast: 400/21 Boom: 150
Battens: 4 Cams: NONE
Weight: 6/2.6kg Speed: 4.00 Power: 4.25 Stability: 4.25 Range: 4.50 Wtrstart: 4.50 Overall: 4.30 Price: $439
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HOT DIVA 4.3
The Diva is the first sail line for women. It’s the signature line of Jeff’s wife Jennifer, who’s also behind the Starboard Diva. She used this sail with the Diva board to win the Aloha Classic Wave
Contest at Ho’okipa, one week after the test ended.
What’s different about it? “Lower cutout,” says Jeff. About three inches lower at the bottom and four inches lower at the top, compared to the 4.3 Slide. It also has less X-ply with big flowers on it, like the board.
It was added to the test belatedly and casually, in response to our request for a smaller sail when the wind began blowing our women off the water. Jackie Butzen (our own diva) was the only tester who got on it. She gave it 5’s in Speed, Power and Waterstart, a 4 in Range and 3 in Stability. “Difficult when overpowered,” she said. We know Jennifer is a Maui sailor. Maybe she’s very strong.
SLIDE 4.5
This sturdy freeride/wave sail was Hot Sails Maui’s best seller in 1999, replacing its least expensive sail, which suggests sailors might be thinking more about durability. It’s designed to be torquey and maneuverable as well as strong. In 2000 it’s been beefed up with more X-ply, heavier edges and longer leech battens to reduce or eliminate flutter.
The specific object of the rearward draft in the Slide is to deliver power through the arms more evenly, resulting in both feet being loaded similarly, giving better board control when surfing in the waves. Henderson is especially proud of the speed he says the Slide delivers up the face of a wave after a bottom turn, speed which he says comes from that “spring-loaded” head. He’s speaking figuratively. “With the Slide, all that sail twist and deflection from the mast starts to ease back, delivering smooth constant power all the way through the bottom turn and up to the top of the wave so you can hit the lip with power and control,” he says, without elaborating on what’s unique about the head to cause its twist to load the tip of an ordinary wave mast so powerfully.
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HOT SLIDE 4.5
Mast: 400/21 Boom: 161
Battens: 4 Cams: NONE
Weight: 6.5/3.0kg Speed: 3.70 Power: 4.00 Stability: 4.00 Range: 4.00 Wtrstart: 4.20 Overall: 3.98 Price: $419
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Unfortunately, few of our testers were good enough at wave sailing to test this claim. You pretty much need to be a Maui wave sailor to feel this alleged benefit. If the Slide’s strongest performance feature is the power and control it delivers at the lip of a wave after a bottom turn, we’re inclined to say it’s a sail fully appreciated by experts only.
SCORE: (9 ratings)
Speed 3.89 Power 3.89 Stability 4.22 Range 3.67 Waterstart 4.22 Overall 3.98
COMMENTS:
“I really liked the feeling of the center of effort of the Slide,” said Jane Parkmann, who liked her rigs lively. She sailed it fully powered on her favorite board, the 62-liter RRD 248. “I felt like I could really push off against it. It was very maneuverable during a jibe when correctly sheeted in. I would consider buying this sail.”
Nancy Johnson tested the Slide on a day when conditions were “very difficult, with offshore winds.” But she said the sail was “very comfortable.”
Jackie Butzen tested it another day, when she said conditions were “radical.” She sailed it overpowered and didn’t like it very much, even on the AHD 257 which she rated very highly. She said the Slide “lacked range and stability.” She gave it 4’s in Speed and Waterstart, 3’s in Power and Range and a 2 in Stability. On the same day, she gave the 4.0 Sailworks Revo 5’s in Stability and Range.
Two days later she later commented that Henderson told her that the sail was rigged poorly. We don’t really doubt it. But Jackie is a dealer and expert windsurfer with 20 years of experience; if she couldn’t tune it visually, who can? What arcane knowledge do you need to properly tune Hot’s best-selling sail?
Jackie gave the very similar Diva sail higher marks. We didn’t throw out her rating of the Slide for three or four reasons, all having to do with the big picture. Feel free to throw it out in your mind, if you like.
“It’s like a Cadillac,” said Ricker Alford, owner of Extreme Sports Maui, a dealership which shares space with Hot Sail’s loft. He gave it all 5’s with a 4 in Speed. “Huge range.”
“Less stable than the 4.7 Gaastra Grind in overpowered conditions, but I wasn’t doing any down-the-line wave sailing, and I’m sure it would be great for pure wave riding.” Three days later this sailor got back on it, and lowered his rating in Power and raised it in Stability. Less wind and better tuning, we bet.
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