Well, you sail what we sail, more or less, ha. What’s your weight btw? As for the brands-I switched to Sailworks too after some experimenting and currently have 7.5 and 6.5 Retro and then 5.7;5.2;4.7;4.2 Revolution , Starboard AtomIQ 110; Kode 94 and 86 and a 9’ WindSUP. Im around 168 lbs. A lot of folks sail Ezzy here too.
Our Shabbona specialist is Jim Nagel, of whom I haven’t heard for a while btw. He has invited me many times to sail there with him, but I just never went. Maybe this is the year! I know from him that the lake is not open year-round, so it’s a good idea to check when the season starts. You can look it up on the launch page , best wind direction is listed as SSE and also S and ESE. It’s just an hour drive from where I live so I should definitely visit it one day.
PS: correction, it may actually be open all year. Anyway, a phone call to the park office may be worth it just in case.
shabbonalake.com/park-info/

Thanks Ady, Yeah the stuff I sail is pretty normal. I weigh 195 so need some flotation. A lot of hard core Gorge sailors have specialized equipment and pretty small quivers. Probably one OpenOcean board and 3 sails like 4.7, 4.2 and 3.7. There is still the element of the “just say no to 5.0” club around. Foiling has become very big in the Gorge in the past 2 years and you see people foiling in all kinds of wind, not just light winds.

If you talk to Jim, please ask him to contact me via the forum. Want to learn more about Lake Shabbona. Have you sailed Peoria? Not too far from the QC, so may try it as well if a decent place to sail.

Ed

Ed, I live in Peoria
Before you go in the Peoria river, please do your research. They say correlation is not causality, but the dead fish floating at the top of the river do not inspire confidence
This is why I drive 90 minutes to go to Clinton Lake, when the river is only 10 minutes away
Good luck

Thanks for the info Sylvain. I will probably try Lake Shabbona.

Ady wrote:
Ady, I'll take your advice and will go for the Lion 6.0 and will go with a 4.7 as my smallest to start with. I would have gone with Cheetahs in smaller sizes but there are none below 5.5. I'm also not too keen on mixing brands again despite the fact that Retros would have been just fine. I just want to simplify my quiver/mast/sail comb and just stick to Ezzy's since this is what I put more money towards lately. The promise of the Zeta's deeper profile should deliver more of a freeride feel rather than a pure wave ride, that's the hope! It might not excel in any particular thing, but it looks like it can do many things! So, in my typical stubbornness, I'm going Zeta!

I also have an opportunity to create my own colors with the Zeta. A bit shallow I guess... Can't ask a designer to not design, right? So, here are a few color ways. Now, which one to choose? If anyone wants to pick their top-2, I certainly will appreciate the input. Please vote!

Sounds good. I’d go with as bright as possible. One, it’s more cheerful /we have more then enough gloominess already/ and two, it fades better. I choose the blue/orange, wouldn’t mind green/yellow either-you know gilets jaunes or patriotic red, white and blue

Ha! Gilets Jaunes! I already have that one: It's my 8.5. See...
Agree, bright and joyful! Blue/Orange is on my short list. I think I'll pass on the blue/white/red though. I'm somehow patriotic but not to that extent!



And that's the 6.0 colors. Bright and sunny!

Greg, I’d vote for the Blue / Orange colors. How / where do you buy your sails?

Greg from Sheb. wrote:
Greg from Sheb. wrote:


Wind speeds for my Ezzy Tigers in MPH

15+ mph: 6.9
20+ mph: 5.8
25+ mph: 4.7
30+ mph: 4.2


To add to the other factors and formulas

Weight of the Wind
weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Weight-Of-Wind

"Boyle’s law... simply says that, for a given pressure, the density of a gas varies inversely with the temperature where temperature is in °K (0°C = 273°K)."


In dry air

"...cold air is denser than warm air and cold air will create a greater force than warm air at the same speed."


The effect of water vapour

"...moist air is less dense than dry air. This is because water vapour is a relatively light gas compared to oxygen and nitrogen - the main constituents of the air. The chemical formula for water is H2O ie two molecules of hydrogen to one of oxygen. When water vapour content increases, the amount of oxygen and nitrogen in a given volume of air decreases."


Extreme example

"...in the tropics with a temperature of 32°C (89.6 F) and 90% humidity, the air density is 1.14 kg/m3. In a northerly airstream around the UK, we might have temperatures of 10°C (50 F) and 10% humidity giving an air density of 1.25 kg/m3. So with cold dry air, the force of the wind on a sail would be about 10% higher than with warm humid air at the same wind speed."




Over the years we've always felt this but were never able to put numbers to it. On really hot humid days 90 F + the wind felt "soft".

Last year we had a day 93 F and the 6.9 was required in wind that looked like 5.8. Then I sailed a day that was 50 F and the 5.8 worked fine in wind that looked 6.9. Meter readings confirmed both cases.

So on cold dry days you really are feeling those gusts.

In my Ezzy days I had a Orange/white Infinity that I liked the look of, but something else I liked a lot that you can’t see in the picture was the grey-silverish color of the technora/whatever material of the luff. I’m not a big fan of black, you know, I would substitute black for silver or grey anytime.

Dietrich Ed wrote: I buy to whoever has Ezzy sails. I bought from shops in the east coast and also closer to home in the Midwest at Isthmus Sailboard in Madison, WI and also from Kevin at Windpower in Fond-du-Lac, WI. As far as the Ezzy color ways, it's just a favor from David. I don't think he does custom colors to customers as a regular practice.

Ady wrote:
That is a nice sail. Ezzy still uses some sort of smokey-grey translucent tightly weaved technora or X-ply on the Lion and the Cheetha, Elite and Taka but not on the Zeta for some unknown reasons. Was trying to use some of that on the new sails but he can't change the material set at will. There are a few things he can do but there are a few rules and the color distribution and cloth type must match production sail. I believe it has to do with panel pattern layout maximization on the cutting table... I'm not an expert but that's what I recall...