Hello Mr. McGain, what have you done
here? After the separation from Gaastra the team around
Phil McGain and Barry Spanier starts with an aggressive
design in the coming season. In an attempt to capture the
old Gaastra customer to Maui Sails the design team
remained loyal to their reputation. Intended to being a
radical wave sail, the Legend will convince in legendary
conditions, similar to the Gaastra Manics before. It may
be a little smoother, more damped and a little bit more
heavy, but will spoil oneself with butter smooth handling
and an extremely well “off” and “on”
the wave. When trimmed for power the point of maximal
pressure is a little further back as usual and you have
to give it a stronger hand in gusts. Also the sensibility
how to trim the sail has unfortunately been passed on to
the Legend and due to this the new MauiSails wave sail
can mainly be recommended to the experienced wave rider
who knows how to trim his sail. Trimmed flat in big waves
it clearly hits a home run, you can sail extremely fast,
lay it down and pull it up from the water, play softly
with the power of the sail, so easy and secure as you
wish in front of the real big waves.
SURF TIP: A real
recommendation for experienced wave sailors and in big
waves.
Wave riding:
10 out of 10 points for “On-Off”
on the wave
9 out of 10 points for handling in
manoeuvres
Freemove:
8 out of 10 points for capability to
plane
9 out of 10 points for
controllability in very strong winds
8 out of 10 points for stability
during riding the sail
MAUI SAILS MS-2 9.0 M
As last year at Gaastra their were
new owners not wanting to continue with the design team
at Gaastra at that time it was very quickly realized by
“The Team” around Phil McGain that they have to
bring their own brand to market. So it does not surprise
to find a complete Barry Spanier sail range behind the
retro brand Maui Sails. Due to this the MS-2 is equipped
with a (Gaastra) traditional long boom and a more smooth
profile as known from the earlier GTX sails. In this sail
test; the Maui Sails sail appears at the heavier side of
the sails tested but can convince in the lower wind
ranges with a lot of subjective power and objective
strong performance. The sailor that likes to sail over
powered will trim this sail to maximum power, can get the
full performance out of the sail with a very powerful
sailing style. But also trimmed flat the MS-2 works
without any problem, it is easy to control and –
given the right body weight – can be sailed to upper
5 Beaufort easily. The perfect trim of the sail has to be
done very carefully, as 1 centimetre more or less
downhaul or outhaul is changing the characteristic to be
felt immediately. The cambers rotate in a similar
softness around the mast as the actual Gaastra sails, but
the sail gives a little heavier impression and due to
this receives one little point less in the judgement.
SURF TIP:Mainly recommended
to heavier and powerful surfers with good know how on
trimming sails.
10 out of 10 points for starting to
plane
10 out of 10 points for speed in the
lower wind range
9 out of 10 points for
controllability in the upper wind range
9 out of 10 points for speed in the
upper wind range
