Wet Willy said...
BTW, what were the pros and cons of Z-booms? Why aren't they made anymore?
All the existing customers are too old to windsurf any more
We stopped manufacturing this summer as the market was so small it was hard to justify carrying the stock (we manufacture large batches for efficiency).
The people that used them loved them & everyone else hated them although they had never tried one.
Personally I found that they were extremely comfy for the front hand but I struggled with gybing & tacking with one.
Another problem is the way sails are cut these days, the boom cutout is too low for a Z-Boom if you are taller than 5 foot
Because of the height issue I couldn't use one effectively so never spent enough time with one to practice gybing etc.
Freight was another problem as they don,t pack well & most customers are interstate or overseas so the freight costs would outway the boom cost.
The Z-boom was invented by a local guy in Fremantle & manufactured here for more than 25 years.
We had a brand new Lime Green Lock Jaw Z-boom
which we offered to the Maritime Museum in Freo, they weren't interested
They could have put together a good display covering the 25 years of the Z-boom & 25 years of the Ledge to Lano, would have been colourful
