i think it would have to be starboard.

they cater for kids like no other company with a holistic approach. boards, sails, booms, masts etc.

plus they have the pro kids range for the more advanced.

also the loft sails and ezzy sails kids rigs are also excellent.

important thing is a rig from 3-1.5m which is soft. so undersized wave sails aren't really appropriate.

the windwanderers are using the starboard kids rig and i am very impressed with it.

A bit off topic but was wondering if anyone around Perth hires suitable gear to teach a 7 year old on?

The places on Swan river only seem to have huge boards with equally huge sails.

try the neil pryde kids gear, well worth a look. We have tried several brands over the years for our 10yr old and pryde has by far been the best, definately the most stable. JP do all the kids board as well, from beginner to the advanced.

You could also look at one of these aquaglides



Pretty sure they are available at BCF

hardie said...

Got board for my 10yo gal, thanx for all your help!!!!!

not another member of the mob we have to deal with!!!!
the (crab) mob has put on considerable weight since xmas

I'm not that impressed with a lot of kid's gear. Plenty of them have lots of battens - hello, how many kid's sails are suffering distortion and need to close the gap? Surely light weight and flexibility is more important.

I'm also not all that amazed with the fat kid's boards. Most kids like to sail in light winds as well as strong. A short fat board with a tiny centreboard is just going to slide downwind a lot of the time. We've tried 4.5s on hybrids in light winds with competent kids and they just won't get upwind. Kids don't need a fat board as they are so light and have such a low centre of gravity, and they rarely get to choose what wind to sail in.

We've had success with sails from Hi Fly, although the alloy masts bend quickly and the sails are very gutless with a basically useless roach. Still, they are light. They come from about 2.5 t0 3.5m I think. The dacron ones are tougher but the mylar is cheaper and lighter.

I saw some little Gaastra rigs that looked good. The rest I don't know about.

Most of our kids from 8-15 are using Barracouta 3.5s and 4.5s on Windsurfer One Designs. The kids using 6ms are faster than the Techno 293 7.8 (the "official" international under-15 racing board) under 10-15 knots despite having a lighter and smaller rig.