POINT-7: Normally it has just a bit less power, but a good wind range overall. It’s a fun sail for all conditions. So, just a bit less profile and a more forgiving leech.

GAASTRA: Shorter and wider sail body. Boom length is only slightly shorter. Lower clew position, less luff curve, a Dacron luff panel, and a flatter profile.

SIMMER: Higher aspect ratio. Less power. Softer feeling.

NORTH: The Ice simply has less pre-shaping and a slightly shorter boom than the Duke. Less pre-shaping means better on/off. Together with the shorter boom length this also leads to better handling. So generally the sails are made to deliver a bit less power, but also to handle and manoeuvre more easily with shorter booms and a softer feel.

MAUISAILS: Generally, as conditions get windier they get gustier, so stability is an important characteristic in small sizes as well. We’ve made both and currently the 5-batten outline still shows better balance and handling, even in the smaller sizes. Having a soft, breathing rig is also very important in small sizes, and we accomplish this through unique seam shaping methods and soft luff curves. This way we keep the draft stability of a 5-batten with a softer feel than most 4-batten sails.

RRD: There will always be a place for five battens as they offer a little extra stability and control, which will always be popular.

HOT SAILS MAUI: We still offer the Fire as a 6-batten, and it remains popular. A lot has to do with the mast length used. Most people don’t want to buy yet another mast, and a 340 is needed for a lot of ‘new’ shorter sail styles that often have four battens.

SEVERNE: Battens serve many purposes. They can provide stability, and they also provide more shaping options. (A fifth batten increases the shaping possibilities by 25%.) For a high wind sail, stability can be quite nice, so yes, I’ll still make small 5-batten sails as a lot of people sail in less than ideal conditions and can benefit from the wider wind range.

SIMMER: We can definitely see a sail line changing into a 4-batten sail in smaller sizes.

GAASTRA: The Manic in 4.0m and smaller already has a 4-batten configuration. It’s possible that the switch to four battens will start from a bigger size in the future, but that needs to be tested. Depends which way our development is going.

NORTH: We don’t see the biggest difference in wave sails in the number of battens so much, but rather in the position of the draft.

POINT-7: It’s more about the whole design of the sail. You could make a 4-batten sail to suit a singlefin! All our sail lines are now made to match multifin boards as well, whether it’s a 4-batten or 5-batten. Where you place the profile and how the leech reacts makes it more or less suitable for a quad, rather than four or five battens. However, naturally a 4-batten sail would suit a multi-fin setup.

GOYA: The 5-batten Guru is well suited to quads. It’s a quick, manoeuvre-oriented, comfortable, controllable sail, and feels great on the smooth and directional, loose ride of a quad-fin. A sailor looking for more low end lift, and who is also really driving his quad hard – turn after turn, fly back upwind – that sailor is a great candidate for the 4-batten Banzai. The Banzai is a lift generator that loves to manoeuvre.

GAASTRA: Sure, they’re suitable for quads.

Generally we can say that 4-batten sails are more suited for surfing the wave and using the board more in riding, while these 5-batten sails give more speed and are more all-round in performance. It’s a matter of personal style.

NEILPRYDE: The current trend is that most cross-shore boards are quad, so all-round wave sails work perfectly on them. They will, of course, feel a bit heavier than a 4-batten sail, but this isn’t a reason for not using them on a quad. In fact, I find quads feel between a single-fin and twinser; they actually spin out much less in a straight line and can take more foot pressure when sailing upwind than twinsers. For most of our testing we use quads and thrusters in cross-shore conditions.

NORTH: Again it’s not so much the number of battens but mostly the sail’s draft position, which has to match with your board. In general you can say a draft forward sail works best on single-fin boards, whereas a ‘draft-even’ (i.e. pull on both hands) sail works best on multi-fin boards.

MAUISAILS: Our sails have a very progressive and highly refined twist that goes all the way from the clew position up to the head. We’ve located the clew in the optimum position to relate to this progressive twist. There is already a wide range of tuning available in the Legends through downhaul and outhaul, and introducing another variable into the mix would not be beneficial.

SEVERNE: On the S-1 the upper clew position is the original one, and the high clew was a key part of the manoeuvre-oriented geometry: it reduces the downforce on the board, making it easier to initiate manoeuvres. The lower position was added specifically for shorter riders (lots of kids like the S-1 for its light weight and freestyle performance) or for sailors used to a lower clew. Most people should use the upper clew position.

GOYA: In all our wave models the upper / lower attachment points are directly tied to unidirectional carbon fibre tendons that cross the sail body to the front of the upper battens. If you tie to the upper clew, you tie directly into that upper carbon tendon that runs to the uppermost batten to create a taller power zone in the sail – increasing overall lift. If you tie to the lower clew ring, you tie into the lower carbon tendon, and you engage the sail lower. The lower leech opens more, you bring the power zone lower, shorten the boom, and also soften the leech edge, all of which make the sail feel softer and lower pulling overall. If you attach in the middle, you get both carbon tendons and a blend of the two performances. That’s the one I like best. You can also choose according to your height, but it’s no rule that if you’re taller you have to use the upper attachment point. I have plenty of tall riders that like a steeper boom angle overall, and vice-versa.

SIMMER: Your preferred boom position will affect your preferred clew position, so having two options is good in theory. The problem is to get tension on the lower leech on 4-batten and 5-batten sails when using the lower clew.

NEILPRYDE: We had two clew positions for years, but all the riders kept using the lower one, so the upper position was ditched. We like using the low clew as we find it improves the twist of the sail.

NORTH: Our two eyelets aren’t meant to be for different rider heights but give the option to finetune to the conditions and/or personal preferences. The inner eyelet makes for a 2cm shorter boom for better handling, increased twist and increased control in overpowered conditions. The outer eyelet makes for a 2cm longer boom for reduced twist, increased power in low end conditions and a more direct feeling sail.

POINT-7: Having tried sails with a few different clew positions we decided to use a straight boom angle with two different options. Having a lower down position gave the sail too much of a lockedin feel, and too high it began to feel like it was pulling the rider onto their toes too much – great in manoeuvres but uncomfortable in a straight line. However, I would say different settings are quite a personal feeling and you can get used to most angles. We found the middle with two different options was a good compromise to suit all riders.

HOT SAILS MAUI: Low clews allow later hits of the lip and utilise a ‘tilting’ move to remove the whole sail away from the lip (tilting the tip of the mast away from the wave). Really it’s a style issue. These sails tend to feel a little more ‘nervous’ than a conventional clew height sail.

SEVERNE: Even the lower clew position on the S-1 is still higher than some of those low-clew sails. If you’re using a big sail in lots of wind (which a lot of the pro guys that use those low clew sails do) then there’s increased control with the lower clew due to the increased downforce on the board. But the sacrifice is manoeuvrability, early planing, and quite an uncomfortable sailing stance.

SIMMER: This is good for new-school style but it makes the leech very long and less controllable. There is of course a point where the clew will be too low or too high. This is an individual point of reference, but I’m pretty sure that we’re seeing some sails now where the clew position is getting close to being too low.

NEILPRYDE: We find low clews work well on our designs. On the mast the cut-out position is pretty standard, as it depends on sailor height as well as preference, so there’s always enough range to adjust. Certainly, those two parameters will result in our sails having probably the most angled booms, especially if the boom is mounted high on the mast.Our riders like this configuration in waves; Kauli sometimes explains it as “using the boom like a skiing pole to pivot around in a turn”.

MAUISAILS: On the Legend we like to keep the draft in a stable, moderately forward position to give the sail good balance, a light feel and the ability to instantly depower while keeping just enough feedback in the back hand to help with getting going and pulling off snappy manoeuvres. Sails with drafts too far forward tend to be gutless, while sails with drafts too far back can be unstable and hard to control.

POINT-7: Having the drive forward is going to give a more locked down, drivey feel, really engaging the rail of the board as you bottom turn. Having the power further back gives a slightly more powerful feel as it pulls on the back hand, and in more cross-on conditions this helps provide power when going clew-first back at the wave. Again it’s down to personal preference. Some prefer the more back-handed sail, while some prefer a more drivey, forward pulling sail.

HOT SAILS MAUI: Stable mid-draft can be fun and loose in the surf, but mid-draft and stable rarely go hand-in-hand. Forward draft is rangy and efficient, but can deliver a dead feel. I try to blend these size by size to deliver a lively but well controlled sail.

SEVERNE: The advantage of a forward pull position is it gives a lighter feel, and the advantage of the back pull position is it gives you something to pull against to initiate manoeuvres. So for the S-1 we make the sail physically light, and then move the pull position back to get the best of both worlds.

GOYA: Forward driving sails are amazing for high speed sailing, comfort in high wind, and smooth, tight transitions. As you move the centre of effort back you create a sail that powers more steadily, is more explosive in its power delivery, and can become quicker to change direction (think of a soap bubble darting in the breeze compared to something less round). Higher winds will challenge a draft aft sail more quickly than a draft forward sail. It can take a little more wind to get a draft forward sail going, especially if it’s a shallow foil. One thing you never want is a draft that moves back. Wherever your centre of effort is, it should be stable.

GAASTRA: As a back pull helps in onshore conditions, a more forward oriented pull (as in the Manic) is better for all-round character, and is nice as it pulls you through the turns when waveriding.

RRD: Forward pulling tends to be more stable and easier to control at the top end, but offers a little less grunt in the hands for the lower end of the wind range. It doesn’t always means it’s less powerful, but there’s less pressure to work with. More back hand pressure can give you more of a feeling of what’s going on in the sail – if it’s loaded with power or underdone. This can sometimes give a throttle effect in the hands. In the end it comes down to rider preference.

NEILPRYDE: Draft placed a long way forward will definitely offer more stability when overpowered, but it compromises lift, early planing and can feel heavy on the front arm. With the draft too far back you can get lots of lift, even from a pretty flat profile, but the sail can get very backhandy and hard to control in gusts. I shape for the best balance between the two, but in general flatter sails can have the draft a bit further back while fuller sails (like our Atlas) need to have it further forward to ensure the deeper profile stays well locked in place when powered up.