Neilpryde gear issues
Hi everyone! It has been some time since i wanted to make this post, discuss a few things that trouble me and see other people's experiences but procrastination hit hard.
I have been windsurfing for 9 years now, bought my own gear and decided to progressively acquire more "state of the art equipment" by buying unused stuff. Back then, when i started doing so, i decided to move on with Neilpryde gear so my whole "arsenal" consists of Neilpryde masts, booms, sails etc.
I have really been troubled lately by the quality that Neilpryde offers and the design choices that they make. Don't get me wrong, I hugely praise the performance and feel of my Combat & Atlas sails, but I believe questioning some things is totally not wrong.
Example 1:
2 years ago I acquired a Fusion HD 2023 6.5mm sail. All hyped up, I set it up following exactly the recommended sizes printed on the sail only to see this result:
Tried to play around with the battens length with the small screw on its end but the batten itself was so smaller than what it should be that I never managed to tighten the sail properly. (The photo is with the screw at its longest position). Contacted the shop, shop contacted NP, NP refused to do something and the shop agreed to sent me a new longer batten that I had to cut on the proper length to fix the sail. (I have to give many thanks to the local dealer since he gave me the batten for free). But from NP's side, totally unacceptable behavior for a new product i had just bought.
Example 2:
I have been using NP's MXT extension and base (photo bellow)
I always check the condition of the tendon before sailing, had mine for 2 years, condition of the tendon was perfect and that is why i kept using it. One month ago, while having a slalom session, my sail simply left the board. Took me some seconds to understand what had happened. Turns out the part that had betrayed me was not the tendon but the internal safety nut inside the upper part of the base. Here is the photo after I assembled it again:
The safety nut was unscrewed and the upper part of the bolt was slightly chopped of as you can see. Left me alone in the open sea aprox 1 mile away from the beach and I had to swim back, took me an hour to do so and thankfully the adventure ended well. I just ask myself, they had plenty of room inside the fucking base, why didn't they place a bolt just 5mm longer?
Example 3:
Two years ago i got a new NP aluminum boom, its was the 27mm diameter design. Last year, after only one year in water, I saw the when i got hit by a gust, the right side of the boom (only the right side, and only when it was on the downwind side and only with my 5.0mm combat sail) got unclipped from its initial position and was re-clipped back 4cm shorter. More specifically, i clipped the boom on 28cm, heard the sound and found it re-clipped on 24cm. Had to reset it in the water, aprox. 5-6 times per hour of sailing. Here is the photo of the pins and the boom's inner part.
It is definitely not the pins fault, since this happens only when using the 28cm position of the boom, with other sails i have no issue. Finding the boom CLIPPED and not unclipped in another position is totally crazy, you can see the marks that the clips have created on the boom inner part when sliding from the 34cm position back to 24cm position. All these on a 2 year old boom while my surf-mate uses 15year old stuff that seem to be immortal. First thing that comes in my mind is that this happens due to the sudden deformation that happens on the boom while stressed by a strong gust. But again, regarding the design choice NP has made, why not just use a pin just 2-3mm longer?
I would love to hear your opinions on all these cases as well as your experiences with NP (or other popular brand) equipment.