WA
292 posts
after such an overwhelming, almost suprising response to the longboard/raceboard thread on this forum, i am reporting the loss of many of sydneys longboards, when dobroyd sailing club, probably the biggest raceboard club in the country burnt down at the start of the month.
though this should not be seen as an end, but an oppertunity. after competing in the nationals at the end of the year, the formula circuit was closer to a one design fleet then long boards. let us embrace this new olypic board and help push this class and make australia a true force in olympic windsurfing. this board will not discriminate as much as the old one's and allow a greater range of people to compete. so lets take these boards as they are with out changing there rigs or fins, but sail them as they were made.
NSW
3586 posts
We'll know more about the direction of DAC after our meeting tomorrow. We have to work out just this question of where to go.
Problems with Hybrid seem to include expense of the NP board ($5400 or so) and the fact that it is reputedly slower in light winds than the Prodigy, which in our sailing so far seems slower than a Windsurfer One Design quite a lot of time time in our fluky conditions. Last year's national Windusrfer champ sailed a Prodigy on Sunday and got beaten by two Windies he would normally beat, in planing conditions. Speed is not everything and he was very much learning how to sail it so the Prodigy may be capable of going a lot faster, though.
I'm VERY dubious of the NP claim that the board will suit a wider range of people but that's just a gut feeling based on the fact that the lightweights will be able to plane earlier and the board will be slow until it planes.
The Windsurfer OD class is still growing, I think; not enormously but the corner has been turned. But of course it will definitely not suit everyone. And we can't just turn to those people (actually, they include me so I'm biased) with Raceboards and tell them to go jump, can we?
Word is that some people want to go Hybrid, some want to go FW, some may be dropping out of boards and into dinghies because they've tried the first two and they don't suit them, some may get second-hand Raceboards.
Poleboy, why not drop down to the DAC meeting on Wednesday and help us make the decision?
WA
292 posts
well chris as tempting as that may sound that is a bit of a hike and i've been to dac once and learnt never to go back to that flukey little hole that so many choose to call home.
poley
NSW
3586 posts
Oh c'mon, fluky little hole?
Our haven of tropical golden-sand beaches, glorious clear water (with only two shopping trolleys currently aground near the gybe mark) and steady tradewinds, nestling between the highway and the shopping centre and underneath the flightpath.....you call it fluky?
I'll have you know sometimes we get winds that stay the same for up to 5 seconds at a time!
It does take a lot of getting used to sailing on Iron Cove, especially after living on the beaches for ever. I'll drop you a line to tell you what has been decided re raceboards.
