USING ALL 3 ROLLERS OF YOUR SAILS TACK ROLLER VS. QUICK LOOP USING ONLY THE 2 OUTSIDE ROLLERS ►VIDEOUpdated a year ago

The UNI.XT allows the most universal usage of any extension out there. With its different thread options it fits to any sail brand and -model without the rope ever getting crossed or tangled.

In addition you can either use all 3 rollers at the sail plus the 2 rollers at the base (THREAD THROUGH OPTION = 6:1 power-ratio).
Or you just loop the rope through the 2 outside rollers at the sail and over 1 of the rollers at the base (LOOP LOOP GO OPTION = 4:1 power-ratio).

When designing the UNI.XT we measured the downhaul forces of both options on all kind of sails.
We've found out these interesting facts:

1. Threading the rope through all rollers (without the rope getting crossed) takes at least 4 times as long as just looping the rope.
    

2. When downhauling a cambered slalom sail the forces necessary are nearly 3 times as high as when downhauling a no-cam wave sail (160 kg vs. 60kg).
    

3. With a 6:1 power-ratio you need to pull twice as much rope-length as with a 4:1 ratio. Therefore with a 4:1 ratio you can downhaul the sail in one go whereas with a 6:1 ratio you need to retighten the rope.
    

4. In theory with a 6:1 power-ratio the downhaul forces should only be half as high compared to a 4:1 ratio. Though in real life the friction loss at all rollers reduces the downhaul tension by only 15% at most (wave sail: 57 kg vs. 60 kg / slalom camber sail: 135 kg vs. 160 kg).
    

HERE ARE OUR RECOMMENDATIONS:

• For no-cam sails the massive comfort- and speed advantages of the 4:1 ratio (LOOP LOOP GO OPTION) outweigh the very slightly reduced downhaul forces of the 6:1 ratio
   
• On cambered sails the downhaul forces are so massive that even a small reduction helps. Here you should use the 6:1 ratio (THREAD THROUGH OPTION)