First 2017 Severne Blade Review By Team Rider Jonnie ‘Utah’
October 9, 2016 11:57 am Leave your thoughts
Here is my personal review of the 2017 Severne blades. The brand is new to myself and I am going to set it out as the magazines do as its a format we can all understand.
” Why a Wave Sail?”
Not such an obvious question as wave sails make a great fee ride and free style sail – especially in high winds with an ease of rigging and handling serves the same purpose.
The blade is a 5 batten sail, many brands offer 4 and 3 batten sails in their range like the Severne S1. The less battens generally mean the more specialist the sail becomes.
I chose the blade for its all round performance and appeal.
First impressions:-
“Nice”
Even the bags they come in have a feel of quality about them.Ben Severne, the man behind the brand is said to be a perfectionist and it shows.First look at them when I rigged them up – in my lounge was great looking colour ways, quality materials and stitching. The blade has a new lough curve, new seams and panel layout for 2017, constructed entirely out of ex ply and feels really light.
I think its really important to spend time rigging your new sails before going to the beach – that way you are not messing around with the lough settings and your extensions – you have done your homework and you can concentrate on getting on the water .
Saying that the blade was so easy to rig and trim. I down hauled until the leach loosened and gave it a bit of out haul tension. It looked good straight out of the bag, I didn’t need to tension the battens.
The measurements given on the foot of the sail seem accurate to Severne masts and boons. ” Note ” – if you are spending your hard earned money on a new quiver of sails, buy the mast it was designed and tested on. Don’t expect your old mast to do the job ” It wont “. Its false economy.
On the water
I didn’t have to wait long – 3 days later the forecast showed a solid F5 – F7 with a good head high swell to hit Overcombe, my local beach. Having done my rigging practice at home my 4 2 blade and star board code 72 was ready to go. “WOW”. the first thing I noticed was how light in the hands my sail felt with a really smooth power delivery pulling gradually from the front and easily controlled using the back hand as a throttle. The setting I had used as marked on the sail seemed just right. It handled gusts well with only a small amount of back hand pressure needed to sort it out. It feels fast and stable too.I guess the 5th batten really helps here. On the wave and into the bottom turn the sail felt really light and manoeuvrable, easily de-powered and not at all snatchy as it powered up again off the top, almost forgettable in the hands. The main reason I chose a blade was for the control in my jumping . I landed a couple of fords and two back loops. I really noticed that the springy feel, the ex ply gives you stops the sail snatching when hitting the water, allowing you a split second to react to the sudden power. Not wanting to sound like a claimer I should come clean and tell you I also over rotated a push loop and head butted my new enigma boom – ouch. I also used the 3 5 when it got really windy so all in all a really good day was had.
Overall well pleased with my new sails, cannot fault them in any way, I know many test reviews prove this but you don’t know until you try, I cannot recommend them enough and you should defo consider demoing one. It s my new benchmark in sails.
This post was written by James Connor