ent to the Dungarvan speed strip with the hope to put my new Black Project Type S through its pace but unfortunately the wind was too square for the course and the tide too low to do any down wind runs across the bay so it ended up being a slalom training session instead.

 

Was sailing the 7.1 vapor on a F2 SX 59 wide with the 36RS. The fin felt great and the ride is very comfortable even running against the chop created by the emptying estuary. The first thing that struck me compared with any other fin I've ever owned is the insane acceleration. You barely get a chance to get in the footstraps and you're already at 30knots. The second thing is how much speed you can keep in the jybes and in the lulls. The wind was around 20 knots with gusts at 25 but a lot of patchy lulls with almost no wind but connecting the windy sections through the lulls was easy and comfortable without much foot pressure and position adjustment. I think all the above alone makes it a winning fin on a slalom course without a doubt. 

 

The top speed in my humble opinion seems to be on a par with the Tectonics Falcons I think but then again I was cruising at around 31-33 knots and was unable to go for downwind reaches so couldn't judge how far I could push it. 

 

The upwind ability, although the RS isn't designed with this in mind, was very good. On a par with the MFC Slalom fins I had but in terms of acceleration and average speed the Black Project RS is clearly superior to both the Tectonics and the MFC. In fact one thing I've noticed is that despite the very changeable conditions my speed remained very consistent. Looking forward to test the top end speed. The 36 was a good match to the 7.1.

 

I couldn't resist to try out my Fuerteventura set-up so I also spent a bit of time with the Type S 26.5 using the 7.1 on my Manta 54. Unfortunately the wind wasn't established enough and too square to get the full performance out of the setup and the max speed was around the same as with the RS36/ F2 SX 59 combo. It seems to be a very nice combo tho with no spin-out and very decent upwind ability considering the size of the fin and conditions. Looking forward to try this combo again on a better day. The forecast is looking good for the week-end :)