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Well, I've had the 7500 Nautil GV for about a week, and on Monday, I took a lot of waves while fishing in a 30 kt SW. No sand issues at all, not a single grain got up between the rotor and reel body. I would have had some minor grinding with both the VS and the cupped Penns. It spools line very well. Very smooth retrieve, but the drag really hasn't been tested yet. The black trim is a lot easier on the eyes to me at least, than the yellow Neptune trim. I ordered it from a site in Australia, and it was here in 5 days.
The Nautil includes two graphite spare spools, one is the same capacity as the aluminum spool, the other is basically useless except for maybe 30# Power Pro or 14# Fireline.
One little negative, at least for a guy used to manual ppick-ups. As is the case with the penn 6500, the external bail trip on the reel stem can block the bail from fully opening if the line roller is perfectly bertical. While I contemplate removing the bail and using the line roller as a pick-up, I had to get in the habit of turning the rotor the last quarter turn with my left hand to my waiting trigger finger. Not a big deal once you get used to it.
I'm not as pleased with the Tica Taurus 6000 I bought earlier this year. The gears went the second trip out. Tim replaced it with a spare body he had and returned the original to Tica. I took some of the braid off it to see what the useless Nautil spool would hold (not nearly enough) and the spool is corroded. The stuff came off the gold lip, but the base of the spool is corroded to the point of pitting, and it ain't coming out. That's obviously just from the water that was carried into the spool by the braid, as it has never been under water or even splashed. The aluminum on the spool is obviously not anodized, or it's poorly anodized.
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