Advice on Juan's Equipment Selection

Hi 

Most of you correspond with me via e-mail and I prefer to answer by e-mail if the response is not likely to be interesting to others.  Juan has posted his query to the blog so I have posted it to the main page below together with the response I gave him.  Juan’s situation and my suggestions of a way forward may be of some help to some of you.     

This is his query - 

I have myself np h2 8,2 mtrs whith rrd firemove 130
Np h2 7,2 mtrs and gaastra cross 6,4 with rrd firemove 110
Gaastra poison 5,8 and 5,0 whith rrd firemove 100
And rrd fsw 84 to use whith poison 5,0 and 4,5 mtrs
And im allways thinking in how to reduce sails and boards
May i have you opinion? Regards juan

This is the response I gave him

Hi Juan

Here are my thoughts regarding your equipment.  As an easy sailing equipment collection I have no problem with anything here.  

If you want to reduce the number of boards then my suggestion would be to get rid of the 110 Firemove first.  This would leave you with the 130 (85cm wide) and the 100 (69cm wide) as your big boards.  The jump between the two boards is absolutely acceptable and you will still be able to step from one to the other as the wind changes.  The 130 will go beautifully with the 8.2 and 7.2 sails, the 100 will take the 7.2, 6.4, 5.8 and 5.0 sails.  Your FSW 84 is a great small board which you should hang on to.

Once you have ditched the 110 Firemove, you need to establish the path you want to follow with your windsurfing.  If you are like most of us, you are going to want to get faster on the water as you progress (as opposed to wave sailing, freestyle or gentle cruising).  If this is what you want to achieve then your next upgrade will be to exchange the 130 Firemove for a pure slalom board.  In 130l/85cm wind, the water is generally flat so I always advise sailors to go for the raciest design they can afford for this size of board.   I gather that your supplier sells RRD so the X-Fire is going to be your machine of choice.  The X-Fire 122 is 81cm wide, beautifully light and will probably plane in lighter winds than the 130 Firemove.  It is also a rocket ship and will smoke with the 8.2 and 7.2 H2’s.  

Once you have done this upgrade then you will have a nicely balanced quiver.  You may get hooked on speed and want to swap the 100 Firemove for a medium slalom board or a fast, light design like the Firestorm 111.  This will only happen in the future.  For now you should enjoy the user friendliness of the 100 Firemove.  Use it to perfect your gybes, tune your sails and improve your skills for overpowered sailing. 

A word on fins - Most fins which come standard with boards are totally unable to extract the performance which those boards are capable of.  You need proper fins and money spent wisely in this area can be some of the best money you can spend.  If you are sailing with stock fins then you must change.  Your 130 will benefit from a 49cm Select S1 or a 48cm Select Ride-Freerace.  The 100 will benefit from a 39cm Select Edge.

Your sails are all fine.  Please ensure that you give sufficient downhaul to the H2’s.  These are hugely powerful sails and can be absolute pigs if they are not downhauled properly.  Go beyond spec! 

To answer your point about NP sails – I think that Pryde makes some really fine sails.  Their race sails are some of the best you can buy – light, elegant and fast.  Your H2’s are powerhouses and the Hellcat is one fine sail.  Their crossover sails however, are not that impressive.  I say that because I have yet to see any visiting sailor on a Pryde freeride or crossover, keep up with us on our Gaastra Crosses.

I hope these points are of some assistance Juan.  Please keep in touch and let me know how you get on. 

Regards

Phil        

 

     

New Select Fins

Hi

I mentioned in the last post that I had issues with some aspects of the new Select fin lineup.  The new slalom fin looks great and I have no doubt that it is going to perform.  The thing which bothered me is that fact that I understood from the pictures that they had excluded the SRX Freeslam.  This fin is proving to be one of the best we have available for real world conditions.  I looked at the picture of the new Edge and it looks slightly different from the SRX.  I queried this with Anthony who got straight on to Select.  They assure us that the new Edge is exactly the same as the old SRX Freeslam.  It has been painted black and the sizes are now in odd numbers.  I am much happier now and only slightly worried.  I need to hold a new Edge in the hand together with an SRX to be totally convinced however.

Talk to you soon

Nice Gybing Video

Hi All

Just a quick post this one - between the sailing, drinking and eating.  I saw a really nice gybing instructional video a while ago.  It is on YouTube but just google - carve gybe tuition with neilson.  This will take you to the YouTube site.  The video is simple, easy to understand and each stage of the gybe is nicely presented.  Good stuff

Talk to you soon  

A Re-look at the Ultimate Quiver and Some PWA Gossip

Hi
Andy sent me an e-mail with his thoughts on the ultimate windsurfing quiver.  I include the message here:

Hi Phil

Current ULTIMATE quiver that I have been giving some thought to:

Boards	Fins	Sails
Vapor	Formula Fin	Overdrive 9.5 or Phantom 9.2
Manta 85/135	53&49 S11	Overdrive 8.6 or Phantom 8.5
Manta 71/116	39,41&43 S10/11/12/Vmax?	Overdrive 7.8 or Phantom 7.8 & Savage 6.6 or 7.2
3S 66/116 or Rocket 66/115	36,38 SRX/ 37,39 S12 or combo	Cross 6.4 & 5.6
3S 61/96	30,32 SRX, 33S12 or Edge 31&33	Cross 5.6 & 4.8

I would still like my 5.2 cross in there somehow, but struggle to justify it, even in the ultimate quiver.

A challenge would be getting enough "Special Sticks" for the Cross sails.

Since it is the ultimate quiver I would want lovely carbon booms, extensions and bases[Chinook springs to mind] also.

One Can dream

Andy

This is an interesting quiver.  If you wanted to restrict yourself to 3 boards I think Manta 85 and 71 with a 3S 96 would go a long way to covering all your needs.  The "special sticks" he refers to are the masts we have discovered which work so well with the Cross sails.

A quick bit of PWA gossip before I sign off.  I heard that Alberto Menegatti is leaving Gaastra for Point 7.  I have seen no confirmation of this anywhere on the Internet so please don't quote me but let's see if my intelligence sources are any good.

Talk to you soon  

2013 Mantas and Some Thoughts on the 2013 Overdrives

Hi

The 2013 Manta line is on Tabou’s site and I believe that this is probably the best range of racing boards available today for the advanced windsurfer interested in general blasting or winning at local races.  The shapes are so accessible and easy to sail for the proficient windsurfer.  Whether they are good enough for the very best pro sailors, I’m not sure.   We will see when the PWA circuit resumes in 2013.   I think that Starboard and RRD are two really difficult acts to beat where top slalom racing is concerned and Fanatic is always capable (on a good day) of producing something special.

One slight concern that I have regarding the 2013 Mantas lies with the 71/116l board.  Early this year (2012), the Tabou team were testing boards here and one of the boards was the 71/113 Manta which several of us rode and which I reviewed on this blog.  Hennie, one of our top racers purchased this board and has been devastating at races.  This is the board that local sailors have fallen in love with and is the one slalom machine on everyone’s list.  What I notice now however, is that the volume on the specs sheet for this board is shown as 116l on the 2013 site.  The team inform us (in the description) that changes have been made to make it racier.  This worries me.  Is the new volume simply the result of measuring the volume accurately or is the final board a different design from the one we tested?  Was the board I tested merely a proto which has not made the final cut?  If the board is a new design, will we be as impressed by it as we were with Hennie’s  113? - big questions creating a lot of uncertainty here.  Tabou – please send a new 71/116 Manta for testing!

Looking at the entire Manta range you could quite easily buy the new 85/135 as your light wind board.  Andy rode the 2012 85 the other day with his 7.5 Overdrive and absolutely smoked.  He was getting speeds which were simply unheard of for big boards a few years ago.  If the new 85 is an improvement on this 2012 model then I want one.  End of story.  If the new 71/116 is the same, as good or better than the one we tested,  then this is virtually a compulsory purchase.  I no longer believe in small slalom boards for myself but if you are set on slalom boards throughout your range then the 59/88 is the board that interests me.   What I like about this machine apart from the narrow width, is that they have increased its length.  Small boards stall so easily in the gybe through bad chop if they are too short.  The extra length of this model is bound to make difficult gybes a breeze – Nice!

The 2012 Severne Overdrive 7.5 has been causing a stir here with Andy smoking all comers on the water.  My concern regarding the 2013 models is that they have wider sleeves than the 2012 models.  Also, the 7.5m has become a 7.8m.  Take it from me the 7.5m had more than enough grunt.  I hope that Severne is not making this sail too racy and difficult to sail.  I do notice however that the alternative masts specified for the new Overdrives are RDM masts.  Interesting and this would undoubtedly soften the sails for smaller guys.  I am unsure about how the camber inducers are going to work on the narrower mast if you were to go the RDM route but knowing Severne they will have an elegant solution.    

That’s all for now.  I’ve had a chance to examine more carefully the new Select fin range and I have issues.  I will discuss these in the next post.     

Gaastra Phantom and Severne Overdrive

Hi All

Happy holidays and congratulations for dodging the end of the world on December 21.  We live to sail some more.  Awesome!

We have had some fantastic sailing over the past few weeks and some equipment models are making their mark.  Karel, an extremely fast visiting sailor has bought a 2013 Phantom 7.8m and Andy has purchased a 2012 Overdrive 7.5m.  Both of these sails are phenomenal.  Fast and easy.  I almost keep up across the wind on my Savage 7.8 but through the lulls, upwind and downwind these sails are easily faster.  No question.  Andy is now as fast on big stuff as he is on the smaller kit.  The Overdrive is a mighty sail - huge low end grunt and seemingly limitless top speed.  I have not ridden either of these sails yet despite both guys kindly offering them to me to test (I was too busy having fun on my stuff and exhausted myself).  I trust both of the guys however and have no hesitation in recommending either sail to anyone who wants to go really fast on this size of sail.  Both guys are really impressed with their sails and both are smoking on the water.  Ample reasons for an endorsement!
My impression is that the Gaastra is a bit softer than the Severne leading me to suspect that the Phantom may be better suited to the lighter sailor while the Overdrive could be a better bet for the aggressive sailor who has the weight and strength to keep it trimmed.  Both of the guys have vowed never to own another pure race sail given the performance and ease of these two machines.

Andy's Tabou 3S 96l is still proving a giant killer.  He sailed against two of our premier racers a while ago in wild conditions.  They had full slalom sails of course and one was on his small iSonic.  Both were given a spanking by Andy on the 3S and a 5.2m Gaastra Remedy.  He uses a Select SRX in the wild conditions.  I am now convinced that most of us have no need for pure slalom kit in the smaller sizes.  I now have a slightly different take on an ideal sail and board quiver and will discuss this in a future post.

That is all for now.  In the next post I will discuss some concerns regarding the 2013 Manta range and the 2013 Overdrive.  I've just noticed that Select have brought out completely new fin ranges and I will be examining these and discussing them with Anthony if I can corner him.  I will hopefully have some thoughts about these fins and some reservations to share with you.

Good winds


      

Dunkerbeck Visit and Some Equipment Feedback

Hi

Bjorn popped in for a visit on his way back from Namibia this weekend.  It is always nice to see the top guys in the flesh and on our sailing patch.  He had a short sail to clear his head after the long trip.  Unfortunately I had already left when he arrived and so did not see him but he borrowed one of Grant's boards and went out with his own Reflex 6.2.  Some of the locals had the opportunity to talk with him and report that he is a really nice guy.

I've been sailing my 2012 Falcon 113 quite regularly and finally have it tuned for the 2 sails I use it with.  This board is a total performance machine - quite harsh and clattery over chop but easy to control.  It needs wind to get going but if you are powered up, things become easy and everything seems to fall into place.  If you are not powered up (ie if you keep falling off the plane) the ride is miserable.  Under-powered the board feels sticky on the water and is exhausting.  Also notable with the Falcon is its propensity to dive if you let your weight bear too far forward in transitions.  I started to be conscious of this trait after Eric Kaminga mentioned it to me in an e-mail.  It is not serious for me but I can understand how it could be really annoying if you tack your board often and are not quite quick enough through the move.


Andy was able to sail Lorch's Glider 105 and was really impressed.  I am grateful for Andy because of the way he sails and evaluates windsurfing equipment.  When he sails he usually blasts against Harry and some other really good sailors, all on optimized kit.  This blasting is at top speed over real world conditions and the sole aim of these guys is to maximize speed in the prevailing conditions.  Each sailor is keenly aware of how fast they should be going and if they are on a new piece of equipment they can tell immediately whether it is better or worse than their normal stuff, based on how far ahead or behind their main competitor they end up after each run.  Any piece of equipment, therefore, is put through the fire when being evaluated.  Speed over the entire course is the main criterion – concepts such as easy cruising, ability in waves, happiness generated or brand loyalty, are all irrelevant.

This all means that if a piece of equipment gets the nod from Andy, I know that it is something special as far as flat out blasting and controlled gybing goes.  If he is excited by a particular board, I pay close attention.  Well the Lorch got him excited so rest assured - this is one awesome board.  He recons that the standard fin is totally acceptable.  You would  buy a really good fin with this board but the standard one would make a fine spare.

    

We don't know much about the Lorch brand here and only see one of their boards when a visiting sailor from Europe happens to bring his own equipment and happens to have one in his bag.  What I like (in addition to the performance potential discovered by Andy) is the fact that they can build most of their designs in a super light construction if you are interested.  Look at the Platinum SL weights on this chart!  A Glider 105 weighing under 5kg!  Awesome (but probably awesomely expensive as well)    

	Platinum Line	Platinum Line SL
Glider 95	4.90	4.65
Glider 105	5.20	4.95
Glider 120	5.50	5.25
129 Breeze	6.20	5.95
142 Breeze	6.40	6.15
Oxygen 60	4.50	4.25
Oxygen 67	4.70	4.45
Oxygen 73	4.80	4.55
Oxygen 83	5.00	4.75
Oxygen 93	5.50	5.25

They have introduced their new Offroad model for 2013 (a rival for Tabou's 3S) and I would give anything to test one of these in view of the results achieved with Andy's 3S 96.


Three notable slalom sails to have broken cover recently are Avanti's Condor, Severne's Overdrive and Gaastra's Phantom.  Each one of these sails is going to be fantastic for the advanced blaster who wants to blow everything else off the water.



That is all for now.  Talk to you soon