Well this is a quick and sad story ...
I wanted to try these boards, perhaps even go to a few races and have some fun ...
As you will see below ...
I did purchase one at a decent price and okay shape ...
On Sunday 20MAY 2018 i had the chance to try it on Lake of Two Mountains in NW 20+ kph winds. The board went fine and i was considering going to the other side of the lake before tacking in case anything went went wrong ... Ah, what can go wrong ... It was a little tricky to tack and on the second attempt, the sail and board separated with the sail in my hands ...
Managed to get the board and when i turned towards the sail, the board slipped out of my hands ...
This board seems to float high in the water and with the wind and waves, it was moving ...
do i abandon the sail and go for the board again ??
what if i don't get the board then i have nothing $%^&*
stayed with the sail ...
thought i could swim to nearest point but the wind was sideshore and so was the current
i spent about two(2) hours in the water until i managed to signal Caroline, an instructor at Club de Voiles Deux Montagnes - which is in Vaudreuils. She was in an inflatable dinghy with one sailor and two young fellows on sailboats with 4.7 sails...
On the way during the two hours ... my sail sank twice, but i would not let it - that was to be my saving vessel - could float with it/rest !!
Once I got to the yacht club, Guy and Daniel were VERY helpful and I had warm showers, towels and warm tea. Took me a good hour to fully warm up ...
Even got a ride back to OKA where they had called 911 and the police.
At the gate I could not get a ride in since there was an emergency/urgence.
Turns out - that emergency was ME,
Gros merci à Guy, Guy et sa femme, Simon leur fils, Daniel et Caroline !!
I need to find a way to thank them properly !!
The yacht club suggested a water proof VHF radio - they are on channel 68
Often i carried a phone when alone - who would i call ??
Helmut suggested coast guard ...
Many people suggest I write a separate post on the incident - what went right and what went wrong ?
Lessons learned and obviously - the management question - what can be done to avoid this in the future ??
As a think i am a comedian, i made many silly jokes - like spoke to the gods and we agreed it was not my time - YET.
Probably lost five (5) pounds -- should i try this again next weekend ??
Was telling everyone I will see them again ,, but next time ON the water !!
At work next day some asked if i would take up ballet instead ?? since a wet-suit is like tights anyway ...
Told the wife maybe it is time for me to give up windsurfing. She said NO WAY.
ALWAYS listen to your wife !!
Since I have been longboarding for over 20 years, I have been fortunate to try quite a few longboards.
Some of my favourites are the BIC Dufour Wing, Fanatic Ultra CAT (my FUC board :-) , Mistral Equipe One XR and my current one - Mistral Equipe 2 XR also known as my MEQ2 ...
Was always hoping to try a Windsurfing One Design - one of the earliest boards .... but ...
would probably have to go to Australia or order a new copy ... were currently being made/copy of the original - still ?? In 2018 the Windsurfer LT is being made in the Cobra factory, Thailand.
Around the early 1980s there were the Dufours and also the Division 2 boards - also known as D2s...
They have become a class of their own ... with VERY particular criteria ...
Dufours do NOT fit the criteria ...
There was a BIC Hervé Borde that is a D2, but I have not seen one ...
So, up until now I have NOT had a D2 board in my windsurf quiver ...
Well all that changed last weekend ... Will post about my "new" board before going into details regarding all the different DIV rules and classifications ...
It is a REIX Competition 1982-1983 found on the rocks and refurbished by Eric Bouillet (more on him later). As a D2, it is 67 cm wide, about 20 kilos, with a fully retractable 70 cm dagger, mast base holes and consisting of 330 liters - styrofoam polyestre... Believe it is 3.90 meters long as per the DIV2 standard - to be confirmed ..
As you can see it comes with a wooden dagger which I thought was home made, but it turns out THAT is the original dagger. All the REIX boards I can find on the internet seem to confirm this ...
It also came with the original sail - Eric managed to scrounge around the world to find all the missing parts for this board. The board and the sail remind me greatly of my BIC Dufour Wings ... The sail is 6.3 just as my Dufour sail was and is also with a ridiculously long outhaul/boom - supposed to be about 270 cm, but needs to be confirmed ... and should work with my HPL carbon boom (which is 220-280 cm). NOT sure carbon booms are allowed in D2 races, but more on that later ...
The difference between the BIC Dufour and the REIX are definitely in terms of rail thickness, the dagger is fully retractable on the D2, bigger dagger on the D2, and obviously more volume in the board. The REIX mast base is interesting in that one simply attaches a universal joint and can then attach a standard mast extension with pulleys !!
This board is supposed to be the fastest in very light winds. The shape has influenced such boards as the AHD Takik and the Exocet RSD2:
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| AHD Taktik |
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| Exocet RSD2 |
There is NO way I can discuss these boards here giving a full history , especially without making errors or leaving serious omissions !! Suffice it to say, they are a VERY important part of the windsurf board history and they have been resurrected. It feels like followers of this class are a tight group and it is like a religion (no sacrilege nor insult intended). I must apologize right away if i make errors or offend anyone - as stated - this is not intended...
These boards have been the official Olympic board in 1988 (Lechner with class A sail - triangular 6.3 m²) and 1992 (modified Lechner = A-390 with class B sail - fully battened up to 7.5 m²)
Seems there is also a class C. This one seems a little less stringent in the rules ...
Then the board does not meet all the criteria for a DIV2 necessarily and can use sails up to 9.5 for men and 8.5 for women as per http://www.opendivision2.org/?page_id=358
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Eric Bouillet who sold me the Reix Competition (with completely original parts ) and official D2 sail is NOT only a local Division II/DIV2/D2 spokesperson, but also on an international level !! He represents this class of windsurf board at the IWA/International Windsurf Association.
http://www.internationalwindsurfing.com/windsurfing_competion_0008v01.htm
seems the resurrection has NOT been so long ago ... like around 2015 ?? Eric wrote on seabreeze forum that in 2009 there were 3 D2 enthusiasts trying to bring it back !!!
https://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/division-2-windsurfers-Where-have-they-gone?page=1
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here are some websites I have been using for information on this subject ...
https://www.facebook.com/groups/OpenDiv2/
http://www.opendivision2.org/
http://internationalwindsurfing.com/userfiles/documents/Article_Open_DII_CMWA.pdf
http://pavdivision2.blogspot.ca/
http://www.internationalwindsurfing.com/windsurfing_competion_0449v01.htm
in terms of rules ...
the board: it seems this is standard across the different "classes"/divisions and the classes are all about sail size. It seems the boards are 3.9 meters or 390 cm in length, 63 cm in maximum width and 22 cm in depth. Volumes typically over 300 liters in volume ... As it is a displacement vessel, the bottoms are rounded. Daggers are allowed to be fully retractable and some boards have sliding mast track plus foot straps. The maximum dagger length is 70 cm. The fin cannot be longer than 30 or 40 cm depending on class ...
the measurement rules are as follows;
http://www.opendivision2.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ID2CA-APPENDIX-A-Procedures-for-Division-II-sailboards-measurement-2017-V1.0.pdf
quick summary of the different classes:
Class A: obviously with the board described above ..
triangular short battened 6.3 sail with a mast of 480 cm maximum height
NO limitation on the boom - carbon okay ??
Class B: same board
using a fully battened 7.3 sail with a mast of 530 cm maximum length
again seems to be no limitation on boom
Class C: rules on the boards are less stringent, but seem to insist on 1979-1992 boards
the sail can be 9.5 for men and 8.5 for women with a maximum mast length of
600 cm
in this class it seems the boom cannot be more than 300 cm
Phew ... once one gets past all the rules and measurements - they better have some FUN 😉
let's see if there are not some decent videos ...
as a displacement vessel you surely noticed how water spray is generated at speed
also, with such a long board, tacks are performed with the nose way up in the air ...
the logos presented at the beginning of this post are the stickers placed on equipment that is considered part of the D2 class i.e. it adheres to the rules ... The red one seems to symbolize that the equipment (board and sail) are Class A or B compliant while the blue one clearly shows the C.
Ironically the II looks like a pause on many electronic devices or software and that is where this division of boards was for quite some time ...
(this is still a WHIP/work in progress ... but spring is in the air :-) )
or at least it was until today %^&*()
On Sunday April 29th 2018 I picked up my REIX Competition from Eric on the South Shore of Montreal, It was a cold, rainy day and so, NO going on the water with this or any other board :-(
with a VERY round bottom
and a 31 cm BIC Sport fin in a US fin box
and the mast base twists to tighten to board and accepts standard current mast bases
and that was in 1982 !!
and yes the original daggerboard is made out of wood !!
As I was going through my pictures, I found some of the maiden trip to the water of my now gone REIX D2 ... Truely sad because I felt it could have become something
btw buddy lost his kiteboard with foil last year and it never turned up - i have lost hope for this one too
even if it is white and larger ...
