Mistral SLE 303

It is now Spring 2024 (with snow in April) and I cannot believe that I have not put up a post about my Mistral SLE 303 yet !?!

This board was supposed to prepare me for the StarBoard iSonic 117W and I did/do NOT care if i bust(ed) it up. That too is a special board and rips !! Was looking for fins to put on that iSonic ...

When I saw a Mistral SLE 303 for sale with the slalom fin, I purchased the fin with the board for less than $100 in 2016. The fin is marked as 46, but measures at 44 and I fixed it up with some MarineTex and then some black paint after ...

Could not find any black paint and so put some grey primer and sanded it again with 400 grit. It is NOT perfect, but ready for the first trials !

Just realized, looks like it had a sunken mast track way back then !!

Here it is - compared to the AHD SL2 132

In 2023 I was wondering if I should sell this board? Tested it & I am keeping it!

https://QuebecWind

    pas besoin de garder notre petite fille parce que ma fille est malade
    WooHoo - il y a du vent
    Ooops = ma fille a besoin d’aide …
    Elle reste à Rawdon = pas loin du chalet
    Woohoo = qu’est-ce que je vais faire ?? ma femme a resté avec eux 
    Je vais sortir la planche 1997 Mistral SLE 303 qui j’ai acheté en 2016
    Mais PAS utilisé souvent = resté au chalet
    J’ai amené 2 ailerons DT - Mistral slalom 44 et Select 48
    La voile va rester 1998 GAastra Flow-3 avec 7 m² qui j’ai acheté en 2009
    Le mât ?? NP CC 490/90 = oui CC en bas et flextop en haut lol
    Et le vent ? est sud 15 à 30 km h pour la session en matin
    Quand le vent a monté à 35/40 km h je suis sorti encore
    C’est FUN fun !!
    Je ne vend PAS la planche lol ni la voile roflmao

"The board is 303cm long and 62cm wide. This is the board with the steps in the hull that I believe was shaped by Mathias Holmberg for Mistral in the late nineties. It was in the beginning of the course slalom-era and the 303 was superseded by the 311 which was more course oriented." from the www lol

Not sure which model of the SLE the board in this video is ...

 

SLE stands for Special Limited Edition. When I purchased the board, the seller marked it as 140 liters. Based on readings in the past, I had marked it as maybe 159 liters ...Supposed to be 7.8 kilos and VERY fast - has won races. The sail range is something like 6.5-9.5... However, anticipate best with 7.0-8.5 range...

 Board has a special shaping on the bottom ...

What about the year ??  The SLE 297 seems to be from around 1997.. and that seems to correspond with the arrival of the SLE line ...

I still to verify if the fin box is tuttle / TT or deep tuttle / DT !!

Here is a slalom racer (I presume), Maciek Rutkowski (Polish, I presume) taking an SLE 78 out for a ride, no WAIT; racing against his buddies and beating them @ the pro level with THAT board !!

North Sails Zeta 3.7m² sail

 In February 2024, my middle son's girlfriend showed an interest in going windsurfing on the ice and snow. It was my wife's 65th birthday and Litchi watched me reach 29kph in 15-22kph south winds on my ice sled using a SailWorks Hucker 6.6m² bump n jump sail 😏

Unfortunately for her, I was lacking my smaller sails, masts and booms ...

So, when I went to water my plants back home, I picked up masts, booms and sails ...

Apparently I purchased this sail from AuVentFou in 2006 to be used as a learner sail. That shop has been closed since  the summer of 2019.  

The ONLY windsurf shop left near Montreal is WindSpirit

In the past I have used this sail on the ice, but never on the water ...

In that picture it looks like downhaul is lacking and far too much outhaul 

In February of 2024, I set the mast extension to 4cm and downhauled fully

The cap extension is at 28cm/almost one foot
Guess we could use a 370cm mast !!

The minimum outhaul on the pink boom is better too

All in all, I don't think the sail looks too bad lol

It even has a decent pocket for power and a small leach for when over-powered !

 Tried the sail on rough ice and 20-30kph W gusty winds... Felt like the pocket was not pulling enough = need less outhaul ... It just was not comfortable tho ...

On 01MAR2024 the winds were more like 15-23kph SSW intermittent and gusty, butt is tolerable lol. I put 2 cm more downhaul and a little tighter outhaul. Felt pretty good for such a small sail in light wind on ice with a 210+ pound guy !!!

My NS Zeta does not seem to show this info ...

Since my mast is 400 cm ... mast extension should be zero (and not 4-6cm).
Which means I need to extend the mast cap just a little bit more ...
It seems one wants mast extension or cap & NOT both !!
 

Summer Plan for 2024

I start every year by doing the "window shopping" and looking ... 

This year I have been looking at windfoiling, but only found one or two interesting used "packages" and they are well over $1000. That would mean selling one or two of my fave boards --> like the JP SLW92 and/or the AHD SL1 140 ☹️.

So, in order to cheer myself up, I analyzed my current stock ...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/

Up north I have the Mistral Equipe II / MEQ II, BIC SL200 and the Mistral SLE. I was thinking of bringing the GA Swift 10-oh + MS 510 mast + HP/MS carbon boom up north for the MEQ ... 

When Victor comes from Georgia (or others wanna try windsurfing), there will be the BIC SL200 + GA Flow-3 seven-oh sail + NP CC mast and the old HSM SPF red boom. Speaking of the HSM SPF 8.5 = is it dead now ?? The MauiSails Global 5-oh can always be brought up north as it is all small equipment. 

Funny to be thinking of Summer 2024 Windsurfing when we are only in February, but it has been unseasonably warm this winter man !!

After watching MANY videos and looking at many kits ... I am probably better off just improving my skills and techniques this summer !!

Summary of 2023 WindSurfing

As it is now almost February, 2024 ... 

I guess I better summarize 2023, before I jump the gun on 2024 ! The reason I write about "jumping the gun" is ... every year around this time I "start the shop" ... because I am drooling and dreaming of getting back on the water !!

Maybe now I understand better why the folks go south to hit the water in the winter months ...

 I was out on the ice and snow eleven times in 2023 (includes DEC 2022) and thirty-eight times out on the water. Both of these numbers are slightly above the annual averages ...

For the winter season I purchased a used MauiSails Global 5-oh. 

The winter season was finished up North and Charlie got this amazing shot !!

Since my van died in 2019, I can no longer transport larger boards to the beach. This is a blessing in disguise because after that I was "forced" to concentrate on "short boards". It also forced me to think outside the box:

 

I was also fortunate this year cuz buddy Hellmoot / Helmut brought my "longboard", the MEQ II, up north to the chalet. That board sat idle for many years and people are offering to buy it !!

I had sold my MauiSails Tr-4 10-oh sail and was wondering if I had made an error because my GA Swift 10m² is starting to show its age ☹️. The good newz is ... some of the larger sails now take a 490cm mast (of which I have plenty). So, I purchased an old 2005 SW Retro 9.5 with no cambers and so far, I am loving it !! Check the video link:

 

LaCrête - Sample of the Day
clique the link :-)

As I feel I have too many boards, I made sure that I at least tried them ALL out to see if they were gonna be SOLD. So far, none are for sale/sail lol 
I will most probably also keep my MauiSails TR-6 8.4 fully cambered sail too !!

 

We also got the Montreal windsurf SITES page available again !! 

 

 wishing you all

GOOD Winds in 2024 !!