At the end of the 2015 summer sessions (
or thereabouts) I did a quiver analysis.
http://joewindsurfer.blogspot.ca/2015/10/quiver-analysis-after-2015-season.html
The reason I add the "
thereabouts" is the season ran longer - I actually windsurfed twice in December 2015 up north at the in-law chalet - December 24th and 27th !! In previous seasons my goal was to go once in December, regardless of where in Montreal - NEVER assuming it would be up north !!
In any case ... the reason why I am writing this post is: the quiver has actually changed since then. At that time the AHD FF 160/79 had already been sold. That was the ONLY board I ever purchased brand new - was a 50th birthday present ... It was not replaced at that time , but the usage of the JP SLW92 was extended to use sails in the 8.x sizes as well.
For this year I was hoping/planning to spend as little as possible on windsurfing since I blew the budget in 2015 - with Hatteras trip and purchases and so ... After I purchased a Mistral Equipe II/2 and a Mistral SLE 303 , something had to go . Sold both my Mistral Equipe I/one and the chalet boat, the Fanatic Ultra CAT. This brought my expenses so far down to $7 for 2016. At one time I had eight (8) boards and now I am down to six(6). One is the BIC Dufour WING which needs major repair and should not really count - it will become my chalet board once again - or go in the garbage...
That leaves me with five(5) boards, which is still too many. My ideal quiver is three(3) boards (maybe four with one longboard) and perhaps five (5) or six(6) sails ... Since I break set-ups down by wind speed, let's see "what i got" ...
Lightest Wind - about 20 kph
Mistral Equipe II/2 and 8.x sails - MauiSails TR-6 8.4 & HotSailsMaui SpeedFreak 8.5
The Mistral depicted is actually a CHS version which CAN322 picked up here.
Mine is the XR carbon version ...
This board could easily handle my TR-4 10-oh, but I do NOT like it when the wind is really light and the sail heavy. There are BETTER longboard sails - Ezzy Zephyr 7.5, Severne Raceboard 8.5/9.5.
For really light wind one needs long and narrow with LOTS of liters.
This one is 375 x 66 cm and 258 liters. with large carbon centreboard and 38 cm slalom fin.
Light Wind - more than 20 kph
JP SLW92 with TR-4 10-oh race sail
For light wind one needs width to plane, large sails and long fins ...
This board is 250 x 92 cm and 165 liters - 10 m² sail and 66 cm fin !!
Other potential boards in this wind range are
as follows:
Starting to get some wind - 20 - 40 kph
This is where it starts to get tricky for me to choose. The JP SLW92 will work fine with the TR-6 8.4, but is not ideal as the board is quite wide... This is a GREAT wind range because water is usually FLAT and less issues with gusts, current, etc AND one starts planing much more easily... So, obviously the same 8.x sails as above with a potential for the JP SLW92, but I also have two(2) "new" boards that fit this category quite well: Mistral SLE 303 and SB iSonic 117Wide. The Mistral is also a slalom , but is with much more volume, while the iS is much wider. These two(2) will be my weapons this summer and I hope to improve speed and technique !!
Other boards that people use in above wind range are Tabou Rocket 135 , Starboard Futura 133 and Fanatic Hawk 135 (
NOT made any more !!) - Gecko 133 then ??
What I call
MID WINDS - 30 - 50 kph
Now we are talking about wind, current and waves and typically for me 7-oh sail conditions. In the past I often used the Mistral Equipe I/one with the North Sails Duke 6.9. So, this summer the question remains - which board will be used with this sail. The SLE may be fine as it is only 62 cm wide and about 150 liters of flotation !!
What I call HIGHER WINDS 40-60 kph
These are practice winds for me ... waterstarts , etc
Typically use Fanatic BEE 124 and HSM Fire 6.3 ...
What I call HI WINDS > 50 kph
Once one gets more than 25 knots and around 46/50 kph and more, it is for the experts ... I will go practice or observe what others are doing. The important thing is to always be safe. Windsurfers talk about the walk of shame ... where you did not make it back to the starting point ... As long as you made it back safely without damage to equipment , person or soul !! When winds are light there is a bigger risk of using too small a sail and it is NOT a danger. When winds get bigger than one is accustomed to to - rig small !!! Better to be under than over in some circumstances !!!
(Looks like I need to improve some of my equipment pics)
like
NS Duke 6.9
Fanatic BEE
HSM Fire 6.3
On Starboard forum agr64 speaks about his board quiver of longboard, large freeride, slalom and then freewaves. This makes a LOT of sense and this feels like where my quiver is going in terms of boards. The MEQ is obviously the longboard, the JP SLW is the large freeride, the SLE and iS are the slalom boards and the BEE is the closest thing I have towards freewave and is also the least used.
Sail future planning in another story. Masts on the market are all finally tending towards CC/constant curve and buddy King Kong is tending towards RDM masts - all the way up to 9.5 !!
