Another thing that makes boards fast is weight, this weight gets more important in lightwind conditions soo I found. This could also be translated to lightweight boards are important for extreme efficiency windsurfing, I believe this is true. At least it works really well for me and my sailingstyle.
There is always a balance between board/fin/sail for vertical lift. There are lots of compromizes possible, but this is what I prefer (for speedsurfing only):
- Sail lifts the surfers weight for 50-60% or even more? while putting another 10-30% on the mastfoot? (these values are not measured, a very rough estimation)
- The fin lifts out the boardweight from the mastfoot and behind+ maybe 10% riderweight.
- The board also will need to generate lift, but I prefer for efficienct to sail the board as much as possible out of the water.
Now the trick would be a board that wouldn't weight anything has no in speedruns almost no need for vertical lift from fin and bottomshape, which boosts efficiency a lot (this can be up to 10% more efficiënt). While a heavy board will always have problems with constant looseness, needed to compensate in total efficiency.
This is based on these recent experiences:
- Begin April 2010, sailing Patrick van Hoof his 4kg? 100liter Sonck board, this was a really interesting experience...
- 22 May 2010, sailing the fanatic ray 140 liter, 9.5kg
- The 2009 and 2010 fanatic falcons (I never measured) being heavier than the previous ones (at least it feels like)
- I read somewhere Antoine Albeau believes the JP boardconstruction is the main reason for their performance. Only thing I don't understand why 2010 JP boards are heavier compared to 2009. Starboard is now lighter in the 131 liter size, and looking to Korea results with 2 starboards in top-3..... It was a smart thing to introduce the woodcarbon, innovation in boardconstruction might be the key for next years.
With this knowledge, I also think about the advantage customboards could have. The current shapes are really good, but with construction there can be won a lot. This would result at least in a lot less enforced speedrun. When you really aim for worldrecord, especially very efficient I think getting the boardweight down is at least in top-3 for big improvements.
So if this 4kg sonck board made in past century is possible and still in 1 piece. We should aim for the same weight. I don't know much about building a board, maybe these numbers below are impossible for some. But to win you have to be smart ;)
40 wide ==> 3.2-3.5kg
45 wide ==> 3.4-3.7kg
50 wide ==> 3.6-3.9kg
55 wide ==> 3.8-4.1kg
60 wide ==> 4-4.3kg
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