North sails (Duotone) Natural 7.8

• Used once.

• Available for pick up at Lysaker Windsurfing Club, LBK, Fornebu.

• Background

The Natural is an all-round, zero cam crossover freeride sail, dubbed by North as their playful and powerful all-rounder. The sail line comes in sizes ranging from 4.2 up to 7.8 and it also comes with North’s 5-year warranty.

At a glance

This sail has 6 battens with a short cut down boom and compact out-line, the second batten from the bottom crosses the boom to improve power and handling. It is very well built, as you would expect from North and it comes with all of the usual high quality North features such as the HTS and VTS rigging aids.

• Rigging

It rigs on a 460 mast and we tested the sail on a North Platinum SDM. It is very simple to rig and set up, without being too sensitive to fine-tuning.

• Performance

The North is light and perfectly balanced, with neutral and easy handling characteristics.

It has plenty of bottom end power to get you going as early as possible and requires minimum effort from the rider to keep you going. It accelerates very smoothly and has a very good natural wind range, particularly when the wind picks up. It is extremely stable and well behaved in the gusts. At the top end, this sail can deliver some very impressive straight line blasting speeds and when you hit the corners, it also handles extremely well. Feeling smooth and well balanced you can completely forget about it through manoeuvres and it de-powers and powers back up with perfect composure when you need.

• The verdict

The Natural is a very easy sail to use and it delivers amazing high performance for the minimal level of physical and technical effort from the rider. It is a high quality bit of kit that is built to last and a great all-round freeride sail that will suit any level of rider.