comments on practice sails from IntensitySails.com

Eric L

New Member
Could you please offer your thoughts on the quality of the"practice sails" sold by IntensitySails.com? At $179, they seem like a steal, but I'm wondering what I'll get.
I don't race, but I'd still like to have a sail that performs well and lasts for several years. I'd like to know what the difference is b/t a practice sail and a class legal sail. Is the cut basically the same? Do they use a much lighter material? Do they blow out easier? I finally blew out the sail on my 1976 Laser last year and it felt like an old t-shirt on its last lap.

One more question: There are times when I'd like to have a bigger sail in light winds and a smaller sail in high winds. What are all the Laser sail sizes that fit on the standard size mast?

Thanks for your feedback!

Eric
 
Can't comment on intensity sails as never used on.

Sails that fit on standard mast - only the full rig. You have to change the bottom section to fit either a 4.7 or radial rig (same top section). If you want to use the rooster 8.1 rig you need the standard top and bottom sections and the mast insert that comes with the rig.
 
the sails for Intensity are awesome and represent a great value. IMO they are better made than the 'official' Laser sail. I went through 2 Hyde sails that were not cut properly and did not match up to spec. I am on my 3rd full rig and my 2nd radial from Intensity as I replace them around 2 years of constant use because it is cheap to do so and sell it off for $75-100 to someone that needs a sail for their cottage boat. It is nice having a crisp clean sail every second year

Most of us in our club race in our weekly club races with the Intensity and other than the first batch about 4 years ago or so they have all been great. No one ever complains about it and is one of the true values in sailing today

The cloth is a bit stiffer and seems to last longer than a North sail. If you were sailing on a sail from 1976 anything will be better than that rag of sail which was a very thin 3.2 oz soft cloth. The sail is the motor of your boat and amazed that you got anywhere with a 35 year old sail.

If Instensity can sell a sail for $180 with battens, numbers, tell tales and a bag and run a business then there is something seriously wrong with the highly inflated, poor quality & value 'official' Laser sail that is only good for a year of competitive sail. Wish the class association would fight on our behalf to stop this insanity, someone is getting an under the table payoff somewhere in the chain. A Hyde or North sail is not really worth the $600 that they rook us for, but as a monopoly we have no choice if we want to race in a sanctioned race.
 
I have an Intensity sail 9probably one of only a few in the UK).

It is now over 3 years old and has been used and abused a lot.

It still looks the right shape, the leech it still pretty good but it is showing signs of needing replacement.

It has lasted much much better than an official sail and better than a lot of other replicas/training sails I have seen.

It is made of a cloth with more resin in it so the trimming is a little different to an 'official' sail but I would certainly have another one if i could easily source one over here.
 
It's an excellent sail. The first thing I did when I bought my new (used) boat was buy an Intensity sail so I could save my legal sail for races.

It has been great.
 
Jeff
I have had a sail sent to me in New Zealand direct from Intensity. They have been very good to deal with and delivery was less than 2 weeks.
Timb
 
Thumbs up on my intensity sail as well. A great upgrade for a tired class legal sail if you do not race.
 
I just bought one and it came today :) I will be using it tomorrow so I'll let you know my opinion, but so far it seems as good as any other sail I have gotten before.
 
I have one since start of sailing season. That one is great value for money. Nice and tight. Used it on my first yardstick regattas (where i am not obliged to use a sail with a red dot). The first regattas were in extreme light wind conditions and the leach at the top was a little bit closed. Don't know how to trim the sail so it doesn't close with no wind.

For official laser regattas i just bought an official sail and that really hurt. I payed 130Euro for the intensity, shipped it to an address in the US an a friend took it to me. No issues with VAT or customs, he is allowed to bring a present of around 350Euro?.
The official one came from the official german dealer. That was 460 Euro (without battens, rolled bag). So the equivalent would be something like 480Euro. There is a difference of 350 Euro just for the red laser dot. Some 20-30Euro? go to the class, but still the difference is around 300Euro!
I strictly think the one design principle is a very good one. Everybody out with the same material. But why don't we (as we rule our class) allow other manufacturers? The intensity sail looks much better in term of durability and is much cheaper. It would strengthen our one design class if more people (and clubs) would afford sail much easier. Then more people would have fun with more equivalent materiel (as this is my understanding of the one design class).
 
Actually, the difference in the price of legal and non-legal sails is due to 'supply chain' differences.

The sail button fee is relatively little; it was recently raised from 6 to 6.7 pounds.
 
Actually i ordered both via internet and received them via parcel service (and well one transfer from the US) but that wouldn't make that difference and would not be the case for US. So this doesn't seem to be any difference?
 
I have used mine once so far and I have to say I love it. The only problem is that the battens are slightly smaller than they should be, but its not a problem if you have another set of class legal ones. You can still use the intensity ones, but you might get a bit more speed out of the legal ones. As for the sail, its awesome. If your looking for a practice sail and already have another sail for racing, hands down you should get an intensity and save a bit of money.
 
They've fixed the short batten problem and are shipping out new ones right now. Got mine a week or two ago. They're an exact match to the class ones.
 
You get the same performance as a new class sail, you just cant use it in class events (as of yet)

we allowed intensity sails for std and radial frostbite racing this year and we had many heavy air days, I have both Full (~8 months old) and Radial Intensity (2 yrs old) and they have held up great

Here's a video from the spring showing both class and intensity sails racing
http://youtu.be/HXtxtcIZGEo
(Intensity Sails don't have the red laser logo at the top)
 

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