Naish Chopper M 4.2m
BACKGROUND
A brand new sail concept from Naish, the Chopper is somewhat revolutionary. It was born of an ‘accidental experiment’ by Mark Angulo after a mast-break in the head of a Naish Force and developed from there! It comes in four sizes – Small, Medium, Large and X Large and they all fit on a 370 mast. The Choppers are designed to offer the widest wind range, while delivering maximum power for the smallest possible sail size.
AT A GLANCE
It’s super-compact, with a very boxy shape and ultra-short luff. The M has the effective size of around 4.2 but with the power of a 4.7, giving it a huge user wind range. Build quality is top notch and its construction features high-tech and lightweight scrim materials.
RIGGING
It rigs on a 370 RDM and we tested it with a Naish Firestick. The luff length is 352, so you will need to set the adjustable head strap to compensate. It’s easy to rig and also isn’t too critical of fine-tuning, so there’s no messing about – just plug and play.
PERFORMANCE
Being so small, it felt very light in the hands and, with a low and forward drive, it’s very easy to control. There’s plenty of feedback through the backhand, enabling you to control the power instantly.
Its wind range is massive and it delivers the power of much larger sails, with heaps of bottom-end grunt while at the same time, in the gusts, it’s controllable and easy to handle. On the wave it has plenty of drive through the bottom turn, is light and soft off-the-top and very easy to de-power. Its super compact shape is also great for spinning in the air and throwing around.
THE VERDICT
Lively, controllable and manoeuvrable, the Chopper is a really fun and versatile wave sail that has an unbelievably wide wind range. We were sailing it happily alongside 4.7s and also still hanging on to it comfortably in full-power 4.2 weather. It would suit a wide range of riders, our lighter testers loved the sail for 4.7 conditions but the heavier guys also really enjoyed it as a powerful ‘4.2’. A highly impressive new sail range…
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