Pryde RSS and broken mast syndrome

We are experiencing a huge amount of broken X6 masts in Australia being rigged in the RSS 4 sails. Two year old masts that have been okay break, new ones break in one run and warranty masts break in in one run, One guy has just broken his 4th mast. Is this happening in other countries as well. Pryde dont have a forum so I put it here.

how many do need to break b4 you ...

LEAVE WITH PRYDE

like the ad says $%R^T()_

[mcross19]

Heard the same things about their X6 booms!

Never had an X9 mast break on me........

[BelSkorpio]

Are you talking about the old RS4 sail or the newer RSS MK IV ?
I suppose the latter.

I haven't heard yet about mast breaking problems with the MK IV.

I confirm that I've heard a lot of these problems with the older RS4 sails. They seemed to put an awful lot of pressure on the mast. Also non NP masts broke in these sails. Especially the larger masts in the bigger sails.

What sail sizes are you talking about ?

The sizes are 7m, in 2012 RSS mk IV. The riders are using X6 for extra durability but it seems they can't take the pressure, even older masts that were great in previous sails, The odd thing is the break is in different places each time.

[BelSkorpio]

Interesting.
My friend wants to change his 7m MKIII for a MKIV.
I will ask him what he knows about it.

I know that NP has again severely reduced the aspect ratio of their sails.

Just checked on their web site.
For a 7m sail, the MKIII has a luff of 462 while the MKIV has a luff of 448. That's 14 cm difference !
The MKIV needs a 430 mast while the MKIII can be rigged on a 460 or 430 mast.

This could perhaps explain the problem. Lower aspect ratio will always induce higher mast bend curves and hence more pressure on the mast.

Again, I'm going to inform on the Dutch and Belgian surfforum. See what they know.

I bought a 8.6 m 2 months ago , discover the sail need a tremendous amount of downhaul that is
very scary to attend the recommened spec . it certainly will break the mast soon !!!

[BelSkorpio]

I've informed on the Dutch and Belgian windsurf forums, but nobody knows anything.

I've got a statement of the Benelux market manager of NP who claims that there have been no such cases in the Benelux since they brought the first MKIV sails on the market in December 2010. In 2011 the MKIV had the orange colour, now the limited edition LE of 2012 is blue, but that's the only difference.

I don't know if the MKIV has been sold a lot in the Benelux, but I have always seen plenty of the previous RSS sails (MK1,2,3) where I surf, so I know that they are popular.
For the most of us the windsurf season is just about to start. April has been really cold ...

Also on this forum, I haven't heard anyone yet with the same experience.

We'll have to see what your summer brings.
The majority of broken masts are the new X65 I was told. Old x6's first. Then the sailor buys a new mast x65 and gets the rest under warranty. Pryde must have a pile of warranty claims at the moment.

I broke two X6 520 this year, rigged on a RS6 (10.7). I used for three years an X9 Ultra on this sail, then broke it and changed it by the most "durable" X6. The first one broke after three hours of use, the second one (changed under warranty) after only ten minutes. Because the X65 is not sold anymore in this size Pryde changed it by an X100 (still under warranty), which I did not use (and thus broke ...) yet. Note that Pryde (at least Pryde France) does not pay sail repairing, even if the mast breaks under warranty.