The most successful racing yacht design house in the last 20 years has had a go at designing an Unlimited (18' x 23") & 14' x 26" board and associated fins. Typically these guys design stuff that is pretty quick although their dominance in the racing yacht design market has been eroded since the founder of the design house, Bruce Farr has largely retired.

sailinganarchy.com/2014/05/27/sup-2/

Im doing something similar over winter, have a yacht designer friend drawing up a board which will be built in hollow carbon. Interesting to see a yacht designers take on a SUP...

Naval architects don't have a great track record at designing boards from scratch that people want to paddle more than once, much less buy in numbers. Anyone else here ever paddle the Coreban Edge?

Yep there are some great collabos between shapers who race and surf and the boat designers who know about the fine points of hydrodynamics and such, but it seems the winning ones all start with a paddler's intuition and a lot of time on the water, not just some lines on a screen, a bunch of clever simulations and a bit of 3D rendering.

That said, good on them for having a crack, you don't get breakthroughs by doing the same things as everyone else.

HumanCartoon said..

Naval architects don't have a great track record at designing boards from scratch that people want to paddle more than once, much less buy in numbers. Anyone else here ever paddle the Coreban Edge?

and the Turbo..

The Farr design looks like a Starboard Sprint. So it will probably have the same strengths and weaknesses.

Wasn't the Turbo designed by a submarine architect? Not my first thought when choosing a race board - how well does it submerge and sink to the bottom?

I'd buy a flat water board designed by a boat builder but if you're after a board for downwinders I'd be looking elsewhere.

I'm pretty sure Ivan and Woogie had a fair bit of input with the the Dart.. I think even a surfboard designer/shaper would struggle to make a board that works well for DW'ing.. I'm sure Dale has made hundreds and it's only by testing and testing that they start to get it right.. That's what Naish, Starboard, Fanatic, SIC and DC does (and others like JP) and they need a very good team of testers that can give good feedback.. I think it's still early days for DW boards as most manufacturers try and come up with a do it all flat water/downwind board that's both fast and stable and deals with pearling issues of downwinding.. That design (in the original post) looks pretty good IMO but I'm not sure about the tail design and rocker.

Here is a board designed by argy AC designer Juan K a few years ago before the Volvo Ocean Race for team PUMA.

www.thecarbonfiberjournal.com/?p=1290

Farr's boats have been typically slow recently and under performed in most conditions when compared to designers like Jaun K, Judel/Vrolik, Botin.

Still a good cross over of worlds though

Sticit said..

Im doing something similar over winter, have a yacht designer friend drawing up a board which will be built in hollow carbon. Interesting to see a yacht designers take on a SUP...

before you do that wouldn't it be better to do it out of foam and epoxy construction first. lt's a lot of money if the board doesn't go that good.


most of the yacht and naval guys have come up with fast boards but usually very un paddler friendly.

and thats where most go wrong.


its the balance of fast shape and usablity that's the hard part to get right


andy- designers like these don't build.


some one else pays to see if its any good

laceys lane said..

Sticit said..

Im doing something similar over winter, have a yacht designer friend drawing up a board which will be built in hollow carbon. Interesting to see a yacht designers take on a SUP...

before you do that wouldn't it be better to do it out of foam and epoxy construction first. lt's a lot of money if the board doesn't go that good.


most of the yacht and naval guys have come up with fast boards but usually very un paddler friendly.

and thats where most go wrong.


its the balance of fast shape and usablity that's the hard part to get right


andy- designers like these don't build.


some one else pays to see if its any good

Many moons ago I helped build a boat for a German crowd backed by Daimler-Benz. As we were building it we were coming to the realisation that this was going to be quite 'different' from current thinking and sure enough it was. The boat was launched and whilst it had very brief moments of blistering speed for its size, it was incredibly difficult to sail and more so to sail fast for any more than 30 second periods. Sitting on the side of the boat on one of our very many testing days, out of frustration, one of my Kiwi friends yelled:
"Who's the ****ing Rocket Scientist that designed this piece of ****?"
A German gentlemen sitting to the other side of me replied "I designed this boat".
Kiwi: "You call yourself a Yacht designer?"
German: "No. I am a Rocket Scientist."

Quite simply the thing was a Million dollar pig.

What you do say Laceys Lane is spot on the money. Absolutely loving my DC14 Coco Carbon by the way.