Kona One Design sails / rigs for recreational sailing

[Darbonne]

Obviously from my questions I am not planning on being too adventurous - just want to go out and have fun on the water as much as I can[/quote]

Get the Kona rig and get out there. Then attend a Kona event. I learned a lot about Kona sailing at the worlds in November. Finally learned how to tune the Kona sail.

[Sailboarder]

Agree with this! It can be intimidating to consider racing, but the Kona crowd is VERY inclusive. They are willing to help beginners.

[DelCarpenter]

1. An adjustable outhaul (AO) is very useful on Kona sails. For a recreational Kona sailor part of the reason an AO is not necessary is the ability to detach the rig from the board on the water then adjust the outhaul all while sitting on the stable platform of a Kona board. That is not a wonderful process, but I've done it on different kinds of boards with both mechanical and rubber universal joints (easier with mechanical). I think the process is more common on inland lakes because our winds are less consistent than those in coastal areas.

2. For any given sail the manufacturer's intentions might not be fully realized, but sails that are designed to fit a particular board may have a better chance of being the best sails for that board than any other sails.

3. Because there is a Kona One Design racing class the Kona sails made in 2018 are very likely to be tuned in the same way as the 2015s (or earlier). That can't be said of sails from any brand that is not connected to a one design class. The tuning techniques you learn this year on a Kona sail will probably last you longer than those for any sail brand that is not a one design brand. (I've watched a high ranking Mistral One Design sailor who switched to the raceboard class struggle for months to learn vastly different tuning on his new raceboard sails trying to get back to the same level of expertise he had on the Mistral sails.)

4. If you ever sell a Kona board it might sell better as a package with Kona sails than it would as a package with a different kind of sails.

5. I'm an inland lakes Kona sailor & racer with two Kona boards & 2 sizes of Kona sails as well as quite a lot of non-Kona equipment. As my larger & smaller non-Kona sails wear out I'm switching to a more and more Kona quiver. I'm hoping the more similar feel & response & tuning of using different Kona sail sizes will in effect give me more "Kona" training hours than I would have had using non-Kona sails. Perhaps all of us would find improvements in our windsurfing easier to make if each of us could afford to have a quiver from one manufacturer.

[DanWeiss]

Del, many recreational windsurfers in days past used adjustable outhaul systems that connected to the clew via a hook. Those lost favor among racers simply because the hook and line angle requires about 3" to boom length.

I've actually thought that an AO that can be removed from the clew without untieing anything would be great.

Chinook made/makes an outhaul pulley that installs through the clew. I find that rarely fits and also tends to drop the line under low-negative outhaul tensions, such as jibing in moderate wind.

Tinho Dornellas developed his own version back in the early 2000s which I found the best going. I modified it a bit to use ball-bearing races for FW racing. Awesome performance, nearly no friction using Spectra tied to the traditional jam cleat boom system.

FWIW, I use the Sailworks AO. It works best for my bum shoulders.