Sport Today

I am planning to buy my first slalom board and the two alternatives I have
been thinking of are F2 Sunset SL and BIC Electric Rock. I'll using them in
fairly moderate conditions with only chop (not in waves). The comments about
these two would be welcome from owners/former owners. I try to find a 90 model
if possible, are there any special weak points which one should look after?
I am only an intermediate sailor and accordingly the one thing I am looking
for is that the board should be easy and effortless to jibe. Any comments?
I am a bit suspicuous about the quality of the BIC, at least the it didn't
use to be up to the standards of F2.
Windy regards, Jaakko

Hello Jaakko

I've got a bic Electric rock it's a really nice board, and it really
easy to jibe, and don't worry about quality it's as good as the others,
execpt the fin box, if you put a bigger fin on the board then your fin
box is gone .

If you want a really *** fasty board, and i mean it's really fast
then buy the new slalom board from F2 sputnik, jesus it's fast, but
it not so easy to jibe.

It's one of the generation of slalom board (KISS- keep it simple and sharp)
it has sharp edges from the midle of the board, the bottom is shape with
a litle V , and there almost NO rocker, it just a flat sharp thing TRY
IT.

Hang Loose

D-730
--
|    |   |      | Per Bo Nielsen            *Phone int+4542845011        |
|  __| __| __   | Field Engineer            *uunet!mcsun!sunic!dkuug!dde |
| /  |/  |/__>  | Dansk Data Elektronik A/S * D-730                      |

        In all the reviews on SailBoards there seems to be a deffinate
trend in that BIC are the best for the money.   They are high quality,
performance and durability.  The F2's are more geared towards the
experienced and racing types but they are also quite a bit more in price.
If you want dependablilty and quality sailling in a range of conditions
I would check out the BIC.   BUT the best test is to try one out.  Many
shops have demo's and/or at a Windsurf Show/Demo days...  etc..   Seeing
is believing.

_______________________________________________________________________________
|  Marc A. Lefebvre        |            >>>>> USA World Cup `94 <<<<<           |
|  Computer Science Dept.  |--------------------------------------------------|
|  University of Albany    |                                                  |

    I used a Sputnik 280 last week and loved it.  It seemed to do everything
    well.  It planed quickly, tracked easily, WENT FAST, and I thought jibed
    easily.  It was a friends and I grabbed it every time he put it down.

    PRICEY!  $1195   (Not as bad as Mistrals!)

    I was sailing Corpus in winds from 5.5 to 6.5 and fairly flat water.

    tom.

says:

Before there is an argument over whether Sputniks are easy to gybe or
not I think that it is worth pointing out that there are 2: a 280 and a
270. The 280 is supposed to be easier to gybe and has much more volume
than the 270, which is an out-and-out slalom racing board. I'm sure that
most of you knew that, but I thought I'd pre-empt the chatter.

BTW, about these KISS (?) slalom boards (called DSB's by 'Boards' here
(DSB= dedicated slalom board)). I agree with Per, they are really quick,
but there is a big BUT. I reckon they are made for sailors in the 10-12
stone (14lbs or 28kg in a stone) weight range. A couple of friends here
are much heavier than that and find that the tail of a DSB (my Tiga 270)
is too narrow for them. Even in strong winds they can't get the trim of
the board right to maximise speed. Both of them are very good sailors,
who go very quickly on their own boards.

The effect of a sailors weight on the performance of different boards
has received little attention in the press as far as I know. All tests
seem to be consider the relative performance of different types of kit
rather than different sizes of sailor. Does anyone know of a
test which examines the relationship of sailor weight with board
size/volume/width? We seem to be getting a lot of postings on this sort
of subject, so maybe this info would be of general interest.

Jim

***********************************************************************

PORT ERIN MARINE LAB.,
PORT ERIN,
ISLE OF MAN, BRITISH ISLES.

Surf magazin (a German magazine) has experimented with different testing
styles. Their Mega-Test issue of January 1991 tested a lot of boards and
sails extremely thoroughly. Most available boards were tested with the
notable exception of Tiga boards.

This Mega test evaluated about 16 properties with values from 0 to
100.  These properites included acceleration, speed, wide jibes, tight
jibes, upwind capability, deck grip, construction, spin out and trim.

I compared their results with those of Windsurfing and there were some
differences. Windsurfing didn't have anything bad to say about most
boards. Surf complained that they had damaged their Bic E-Rocks and
Adagio's with just two days of sailing. Surf also hated the Hifly
Baffin 275, saying that it's an overgrown wave board. [I have to admit
that Surf tends to hate blow-molded boards, so it wasn't a surprise
that they didn't like the hifly.]

Surf tested only the 8'6" Seatrend and their opinion was that it was
fun to ride, but practically no good for racing. The Sputnik 270 only
got average marks for fun (50) and slightly better for racing (60).
The AHD Slalom 265 was probably the winner in the high-wind slalom
category (fun: 80pts, race: 80 pts, highest speed and acceleration of
that category).

Since the mega test only concentrated on testing as many boards as
possible, they didn't do any better than Windsurfing in determining
the optimal sailor weight or size for each board. Their test team
had one 80 kg sailor, two women and several average sized men, so
they covered the normal range of users.

The september 1990 issue of Surf had an interesting way to describe
the rails of boards. They used a small device to record the shape of
the board rails 30 cm from the back and at the widest spot. These
shapes were then printed in the magazine. They probably didn't have
the space to do this with the January tests, but it would have been
a nice addition.

Windsurf had more accurate speed tests, or at least would have, if
their wind conditions had been more dependable. They should choose
a windier location next year. Surf went to El Medano/Teneriffa and
they didn't seem to have any problems testing the equipment.

Magazines are too dependent on advertising money and sponsors.
Windsurfing tends to favor Bic and Surf tends to dislike French boards
(like Bic and Tiga). Mistral and F2 are liked by both magazines, so I
guess they either advertise a lot or make good boards.

   ____________________________________________________________________________
  / Juri Munkki     /  Helsinki University of Technology   /  Wind  / Project /

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subject was Re: F2 Sunset SL vs BIC Electric Rock

   Not only boards, but also sails, must be designed for a particular
weight and height of sailor!
   It can't be easy to test boards for different sailor weight. Skill
comes into it as well, and I'm rather short on that.
   Boards mag once referred to the 'design wind speed' of a sail. I
should have written in to ask what they meant, as I've never seen any
sail makers advertise these figures. There must also be a 'design
sailor weight', and 'design sailor height'.
   BTW, I'm well under 10 stone weight. A guy at the lake was described
as a lightweight at 12 stone, by someone around 18 stone. What a
compliment! When the wind dropped, a friend and I both sat on my 130
litre board, and it didn't sink.
   What I mean by this is that a heavier sailor should be using a
substantially bigger sail in the same wind. Hence, the sail should be
differently designed.
   ( I'm just looking out of the window, and it is snowing! Fine hail
perhaps. Should please the skiers here.)

! Stephen Hayes, Edinburgh University Computing Service.

! Sailboards: Fanatic Viper, Alpha 130F.

I made a slight error in my previous message. Surf magazine tested all
those boards in the February issue and not the January issue as I wrote.

   ____________________________________________________________________________
  / Juri Munkki     /  Helsinki University of Technology   /  Wind  / Project /

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