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Chimmey
Australia
5 Posts |
Posted 04/02/2012, 8:01 am
   
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Hi all
I'm new to this site and was wondering if someone could help me.
I have just purchased an old tencate spacer for my daughter to learn on. It may need in the near future, a tendon for the mast base.
Does anyone know where spares for these old units can be got or otherwise does anyone know if there is a base that can replace the old one?
Any help or advise would be greatly aprecciated
Bill |
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dinsdale
WA
Australia
674 Posts |
Posted 04/02/2012, 1:07 pm
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I don't know where you'd get Tencate bits from - Google might be your friend even there.
However, I think perhaps you should have sought a little advice before buying an old Tencate for a learner. Best of luck. |
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jn1
SA
Australia
114 Posts |
Posted 04/02/2012, 2:21 pm
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| I've tried googling this. No pictures or info and it's before my time as a windsurfer. Are you able to take some photos and post them up ?. We might be able to suggest a substitute part or a mod. |
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Chimmey
Australia
5 Posts |
Posted 04/02/2012, 3:20 pm
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| Thanks for the information. It didn't cost a lot and we can always use it as a paddle board if I have no luck. Dinsdale can you suggest an alternative unit for a teenage starter? Here are a photo of another unit that has already been pulled apart after breaking. |
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mattstocks
NSW
Australia
62 Posts |
Posted 04/02/2012, 3:54 pm
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I would try surf sales Australia.
They have some parts and can ship them. |
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mattstocks
NSW
Australia
62 Posts |
Posted 04/02/2012, 6:27 pm
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| Try ebay, theres actually a tencate mast foot on it now.... |
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dinsdale
WA
Australia
674 Posts |
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Chris 249
NSW
Australia
494 Posts |
Posted 05/02/2012, 7:24 am
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dinsdale said...
I don't know where you'd get Tencate bits from - Google might be your friend even there.
However, I think perhaps you should have sought a little advice before buying an old Tencate for a learner. Best of luck.
Whether a Spacer will be good for a beginner depends on where you sail.
If you sail in many places - maybe Westlakes in Adelaide or in Sydney - for example, longboards are often the best way to go. We often sail in light wind locations where even a Spacer would normally go faster on a typical weekend than a Formula board. We need good low-speed upwind capability because you have little room to pick up speed. We don't need the same sort of sideways stability because we don't have waves.
When we've used widestyle beginner boards etc for learners at our clubs they almost always end up on the leeward shore because beginners with small sails aren't a great combination with small centreboards. That doesn't happen with longboards, which are better at going upwind in light winds.
As an example of how inefficient shortboards can be around Sydney or similar places, we find that a less experienced kid with a 4.5m on a One Design is about 4m quicker around a course, than the kids who do the Techno nationals and use a Techno 7.8.
Last time I sailed in Melbourne, for the North Sails "1 hour", all the beginner widestyles (borrowed by fast sailors due to light winds) were 70% of the speed of a Windsurfer One Design because there was only about 6-8 knbts of wind. The Spacer is about as quick as a One Design in such conditions, so it can offer things a widestyle beginner's board can't.
Sure, for real beginners speed is not the only measure, but it's one way of showing the differences.
Of course, in other conditions the Techno, Formula, or widestyle boards can be much better. A wide board IS better in other ways - but not for everyone and everywhere.
Widestyle boards are fantastic to learn on in WA or windy open waters, but they have major problems in other places.
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Chimmey
Australia
5 Posts |
Posted 05/02/2012, 9:41 am
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Thanks Chris
We took the TC Spacer board out to West Lakes yesterday and I think any lack of control it had was due to our inexperience. Having said that we had a lot of fun learning and my daughter wants to do it again. The tendon, although starting to tear didn't give out or get any worse. I think I will fit the smaller sail this time and use it till it either breaks or we feel the need to upgrade.
Thanks to you all for your advice. It has been extremely valuable and I have learnt a lot already.  |
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evets
WA
Australia
559 Posts |
Posted 05/02/2012, 11:09 am
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| I would love to see a photo of the board. I think that may have ben the first board I ever bought new (about 1985) |
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Wineman
NSW
Australia
1104 Posts |
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pirrad
SA
Australia
424 Posts |
Posted 08/02/2012, 6:35 pm
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this is an old one design board that i fitted a tyronsea deck plate to, also have done a board with mast track like in above picture, one long screw in centre of track (removed one that was there) and one on each side of track through alluminium.
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shear tip
NSW
Australia
759 Posts |
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Kimba
SA
Australia
329 Posts |
Posted 08/02/2012, 6:50 pm
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| You can fit a standard (modern day) uni by making a rectangular plate to fit inside the mast track and tapping a hole in the bottom to suit the stud on the uni deck plate. It is just like scaling up the regtangular nut that comes with the deck plate. I have the same uni as Wineman but the board is a TC Runner (KI Pro Am!) and this is how I would upgrade it. |
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pierrec45
NSW
Australia
1544 Posts |
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hardpole
WA
Australia
342 Posts |
Posted 09/02/2012, 2:38 pm
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First board I ever owned, managed to learn on that with a NP RAF 4.7 sail. Still may have the original unused 6m triangular sail that came with it but threw out the rest a long time ago.
Mine used to have a white plastic mastbase that was meant to slide in the track but sometimes would pop out instead. Got used to pushing it back in while out on the water.
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Windxtasy
WA
Australia
2205 Posts |
Posted 09/02/2012, 3:00 pm
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| You don't want to risk that tendon giving way whilst your daughter is out on the water, so make every effort to replace it. If young teens get a fright early in their sailing and have to swim a long way in they will never want to do it again. |
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Wineman
NSW
Australia
1104 Posts |
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)
), then definitely replace as any method above that 26 year old attachment.