slowboat said...
Heres a wriggly open can of worms....
.....
Smaller boards => lower drag.
By looking at fast Kites, the kite board seems to have much more board surface area attached to the water than that of windsurfer speed board when going fast?
If this assumption is correct, the windsurfer board has less drag than kites when traveling over 40knots?
For Light weights to go fast;
The Go Fast Small Board Speed formula is something like this;
Fast Speed from board = volume distribution + outline/ rocker profile + narrow width + low tail surface area (low tail area = low fin surface area/
length fins) = Control, Control = Fast.
Fast Sailors = Greater weight + Greater leverage = control.
Slow Sailors = Less weight + Less leverage = no control.
Sailors < 75kgs should be using much smaller speed boards than that of the slightly heavy sailors.
The ideal speed board for light weights should be low volume (<50 liters), 2-3" thick board, & very low volume in the tail area, possibly less width, too narrow & control is lost.
Naturally to go fast you need opportunity/ skill/ tuning, without the right gear the light weight sailor is really pushing it to go fast.
Until Light weight windsurfers master "Control with Power" we will always be a few knots of the pace.
Light weight speed Kiters have mastered "Control with Power" & now the heavy weight speed kiters are slower!, guess the heavy weight is pushing too much water resulting in too much drag.
Edited "(low tail area = low fin surface area/
length fins)", have seen 12cm fins giving same lift as 28cm fins, now think fin surface area is more important than length when matching tail surface area.
