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LOWDOWN – NEIL PRYDE XV8 2017

23/01/2017
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Modern life is all about the reboot, version 2.0. From movies to cars to design classics, icons are being brought back to life with a bang. Neil Pryde have a rich legacy of windsurfing design so when we heard they were relaunching the legendary V8 (last seen in 2009!), we needed to know more and who better than designer Robert Stroj to give us the lowdown!

WS: What were the goals of the new V8 design?
RS: The basic goal and idea behind the V8 was to create a sail which allows you to use a bit smaller sail size, that you don’t need to go with a huge sail like in racing sails and also like with the Hornet. And that you can get not only super early planing but also as good acceleration as possible. So when you are almost planing or just planing and you get a little gust, the V8 really always has this power on the front hand and pulls you forward.

WS: How much influence came from your Racing sails?
RS: I would say a lot of the design came from the race sail, for example, the way we treated our leech and the shape in the middle of the sail. So you can see there is a very very smooth release through the middle without the head being too open.

WS: Can you explain in a bit more detail what you mean by release?
RS: OK, so basically you have two ways to control the leech. In this case release means how the sail opens. One way is that you reduce a lot of luff curve in the front and the sail actually opens through that. Or the other way is that you do it with the seam shaping. So you basically open the sail through negative shaping. Negative Shaping means the leech does not build a belly, it literally is cut a bit back behind the top and the bottom. And this is where the things are going with the racing sails, how the development was influenced and where it has headed to in the last couple of years.

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The V8’s new clew.

WS: So is the V8 more of an alternative to the Hornet than to the racing sails for most customers?
RS: Yes. Absolutely it would be an alternative to the Hornet. The difference is mainly the following: in the same wind, you would probably take 1 square metre less then you would take if you’d go with a racing sail or the Hornet. The performance of the V8, with one batten extra and all tube battens except the foot batten, is really a remarkable performance upgrade compared to the Hornet. The Hornet will basically get a good low end but will top out when you get into gusts and so on, but the V8 can really hold…better, easier control, less backhand power in strong winds and more top speed.

WS: Top speed is achieved by the more open top or…?

RS: Correct, but not actually the top, it is more the leech part from the middle to the top. That’s what we call a good release. It gives you acceleration instead of lifting you up. When the gust comes, you can actually lock the sail, sit down and the sail gets going. But the really important thing on the V8 is what you can see very clearly if you look at the profile. There is this really really good forward pull in the sail and that’s why the profile in the front, just behind the sleeve, starts very deep and then we made sure that in the back the sail is actually pretty flat, like you can see the batten above the boom is very flat, almost ‘S-ing’ (showing an S-Shape), it’s immediately releasing, so that you really avoid that backhand pressure overload.

WS: Is this also due to the tube battens, as the Hornet had just one or two tube battens?

RS: No, the V8 has tube battens everywhere, except in the foot where the Hornet only had tubes in the middle. In the foot, it is not a tube batten, simply for the reason of durability. Because that’s the one which hits the board and stuff. But all the rest are tube battens. The top three battens are small diameter pure tubes. So they are tubes with the same diameter all the way forward and this keeps the sail really light also in the head because you don’t have any heavy G10 battens.

WS: You have a special clew construction, can you tell us more.
RS: Yes, we reduced the cut out on the compact clew. Due to the cambers, to put the boom on you just need to release some downhaul and then the sail shortens and you can put the boom on and off. And what is new now, which also comes from the racing sails, is the dual boom length clew. Before, on the racing sails we had two grommets, one on top of the other or on the free ride sails just one. But we learned, that you could actually get a lot of tuning range by using this dual boom length. That means the two eyelets are not just one above another, but also one in front of the other. That’s also why you see two different boom lengths printed on the sail, with 5-7 cm difference. The lower one gives you better acceleration and control. And the upper one is clearly closing the leech, which gives you upwind and low-end performance. I suggest everybody to try these different settings, because it is a very noticeable difference and worth tuning around a bit with these options.

WS: If you compare this V8 to the former V8, what is the difference?
RS: Our goal really was to make sure that we didn’t sacrifice this pool of low-end power, which the V8 was really known for. Main thing to expect as a difference is the huge wind range, the control and the top end the new V8 is equipped with. And this is the benefit of learning from the development in past years, from all the improvements in racing sails – this leech that releases and that does not hold on you. So the old V8 would definitely feel more of a handful size for size in the same wind.

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