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New old Smack
Trying the New old Smack 4.8
As you might know, I’m the Swedish distributor of Hotsailsmaui windsurfing equipment. The core of their product line are windsurf sails, and despite the relatively small size of the company, HSM is making more, and a more diverse line of sails than any other windsurf sailmaker. If one would pick one single product to represent the heart of Hotsailsmaui, it would be their wave sail ”Smack”, in size 4.8. This sail can be said to be the most refined product of any in the Hotsailsmaui’s history.
The Smack is a part of Hawaiian wave-sailing heritage. The most radical and also the best wave-sailing conditions on Maui is usually found in mid winter. It is then the swell from north is as biggest, and it is then the easterly trade winds are strong enough to make wave-sailing possible, but also light enough not to make the waves of less than perfect quality.
In these conditions you need a sail strong enough to take the impact from heavy braking waves, and from wear and tear from the sharp reef. It also needs to be light enough to make slogging out through the rough water in almost no wind, as easy as possible. You do want it to have power, and it needs to be stable enough to handle the often gusty side-off-shore trade wind. But it cannot be stiff, it must feel fast and neutral, and still somewhat ’locked’ in the bottom-turn, but then release all power in the cutback. All these demands are hard to combine and any wave-sail design can be said to be a compromise – it is very difficult to make a sail that is best at everything. To all this we can also ad sailing ability, style and subjectivity of every individual windsurfer. It is more or less impossible to make a sail to suit all tastes.
Smack has been around for many, years. It was also preceded by other Hotsailmaui models like RockSlide and Slide. Smack is a product of decades of product development and fine tuning. It has been appreciated by very different types of wave-sailors. And particularly among wave-sailors that are new to Hotsailsmaui products, coming from other brands; the verdict on Smack has always been very good. Smack can be described as a very well rounded sail, loved by everybody. It can be said to make up the very core of the Hotsailmaui’s sail model line up.
Last month I have been testing the very latest version of this wonderful sail. Since it was pretty much a perfect design before this last and quite extensive up-graded version came out, I was a little bit nervous when I rigged it the first time: Would I like as much as the earlier models?
Enjoying driving Smack through a bottom-turn
Just as earlier versions it can be rigged in a variety of ways; baggy with a lot of low end power and back hand pressure, or flat with a more speedy and neutral feel. I usually down-haul my sails more than others, but this time a rigged it more main-stream. It is a quite a lot lighter than earlier versions with new materials previously used in Hotsailmauis super light sail the ”Firelight” (the world’s lightest 5-batten production wavesail). It also feature a higher positioned bottom batten and a little less foot roach.
It IS a wonderful sail. I recognized it perfectly from earlier versions, with a slight twist against the speedy, fast-reacting lighter feel. It does still have that low end grunt, but it just feels a little bit faster and lighter in the hands. The 4.8 has the power of many other 5.0s, but it has a compectness of any 4.7. It also handles gusts effortless, even when rigged for power, it stays in shape in gusty conditions. It has a somewhat ’set’ or ’looked’ feel when fully loaded and blasting for speed or carving down a fase towards a deep bottom-turn. But then it feels soft and alive in top-turns and other manuvers. It is the best Smack so far – and that is a very very high verdict. Nobody will be disappointed on this sail. No matter if you are an old Smack-lover or never ever tried it before, the Smack is more than ever the well rounded wave-sail that is and will be loved by everybody that will lay their hans on it.
Top-turning Smack on a glassy wave
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