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Severne Turbo-Featured

SEVERNE TURBO 7.5M 2014 TEST REVIEW REPORT

Stats Size (m2) 7.5 Luff (cm) 464 Boom (cm) 204 Battens 7 Ideal Mast Severne 80/90 SDM (tested on Gaastra 460 SDM) Rigs on RDM with cam converter Extension Req (cm) 5 Price £529

Severne Turbo 7.5-480px

Severne Turbo 7.5m 2014 Test Review Report

BRAND POSITIONING
“The Turbo is the most user-friendly cam sail. It combines low end power with light handling and blistering top speed with control. It is based on our race sail platform with higher skin tension and pre tensioned leeches, increasing the low end power and top end control. The 2 cams stabilize the foil and provide pre set shaping for power and drive through gusts and lulls. By maintaining the drive forward in the sail, the TURBO promotes an upright stance which translates into a rig that is easier to sail faster. The TURBO is designed to be the fastest and most comfortable Twin Cam sail ever. It uses our homogenous batten concept. The smaller sizes (6.0 – 7.0) feature 6 battens keeping the handling light and the swing weight low. The larger sizes (7.5 – 9.2) feature 7 battens for foil stability with the increased size.” (Sic.)

PERFORMANCE
In terms of power the Turbo (or ‘Donut’ as we read it from the other side of the monofilm!) has the ‘DNA’ of a really refined, settled, confidence-inducing race sail. The depth and forward draft concentration really help it to pin down the racier boards and delivers a ‘velvety’, smooth pull. There’s a slight element of flex and the breathing action is always active and alive and was much appreciated in the rough conditions during this test trip. As we discovered in the slalom sail test in the May issue, deeper draft is nothing to be afraid of. In fact it makes life much easier and pushes the board down for added control when you ‘let fly’ and hydrofoil on the fins over swell in that exciting ‘6th gear’. That said, we did find that a lot of downhaul was needed as, despite the nice upright stance it encourages, you can be pulled up on to the toes a little too much at times so experiment with the downhaul and find the best sweet spot for the conditions at hand. We liked neutral outhaul the best and were impressed by how this grunty beast was actually pretty darn manoevrable too.  Leaving the gybes the acceleration is obvious and strong. Not being top-level racers we found this helped us be faster on this sail when paired with dedicated slalom and the faster freerace boards we had with us than on the full-on gear that’s harder to kill the backhand on when approaching the corners. There’s a slick, solid ‘crack’ on rotation and it goes without saying we thought the flat-stick speed was pretty impressive against those pro-level slalom rigs. It has to be said these findings are based once again on using a Gaastra SDM mast (their ‘old’ curve, not the latest bend) as we haven’t managed to source the right Severne masts from the distributor to date, but, in case you already own one, it seems the Gaastra spars always seem to hit the mark.

THE VERDICT
A smooth, settled, turbo-fast twin cam with exceptional wind range and control. A no-brainer pick for anyone tempted to enter the racing or GPS  scene while demanding a vital level of control. The benchmark product from this test.

www.severnesails.com


Other sails in this test:

EZZY LION 7.5

GAASTRA COSMIC 8.0

NEILPRYDE HORNET 7.7

NORTH S-TYPE 7.8

SIMMER 2XC 7.8


Back to test intro page

TEST OVERVIEW PAGE

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