Early formula boards had a part-recess for the mast base, to flatten the deck around the base. On my formula, it has some of the deck scooped out, to thin it out and reduce its volume -> water does collect, but its not a problem.

Having a recessed mast track is probably a good idea, although you need to think about the deck-surface when the mast is lying flat on the water -> the deck can get dinted.

Aside: from looking at the pic, it appears that you might be dragging that rear-edge as it might have enough clearance...

Thanks guys, I'll give the well a go.

mathew, the cut outs are 2cm deep and about 3cm wide, to me that looks enough, although I haven't made a close study of my wake at speed.
It's a bit late to change it as I've now got coremat in the cutouts. Guess I'll see how it goes, although if I am going to change it, would be best to do it before I go any further.

Any thoughts anybody.

Decrepit are you going to flair the well out to the rails? Ian Fox has wells on most of his boards to keep the center of balance(effort) down as low as possible.I,m still not sure if there worth the effort of doing ,I think cutouts are worth doing on the right board. Made mine perform a lot better.Good luck with it all

Hi Decrep , Sorry I can't help being a designer ****er . Purely aesthetic bit I think it should look like this . Run the recess right back to the front of the front pad and a bit further forward. Give the outside intersection line a bit of curvature so it runs better with the outline of the board .
My 2c's worth and I won't even charge you my consultancy fee!

decrepit said...

Thanks guys,

Kato, no I don't think I'll flair it to the rails, I'll loose to much volume thru the middle, could make it a bit weak as well.
Because I've made the back of the board thick to get extra leverage, I thought the well may help to compensate for the loss of stability, with the added advantage of still more leverage and less of a gap at the foot of the sail.
The whole board is a bit experimental, as Nebs said, you'll never know how it works unless you build it..

Mr Love, yeah that does look heaps better, I've and idea the more tapered sides will spread the loads on the mast base better as well. (May be why other people flair them to the rails?)

This arvo I'll attack it again, and post my progress.

You know whats going to happen with this dont you, it will work great and we will all want one[}:)]

I hope you are going to be able to produce a few of these Decrepit

decrepit said...


Well I've probably got 10 years building time left in me. You'll just need to be patient.

Do slightly obese friends with serious psychological problems get a look in

hardie said...


Do slightly obese friends with serious psychological problems get a look in

Of course, you look in most days anyway don't you?
(not inferring that slightly obese and psychological refers to you.)

Sausage,
ribs should increase stiffness a bit, but would be a pain to make.
It's easier to increase carbon content to increase stiffness where it's needed, in the case of this board, between mast base and tail, don't think stiffness in front of mast track serves a lot of purpose. The rails of course form C section beams, they also are a big part of board stiffness.

Mr Love.
Good job you mention front pad, I marked it's position yesterday, and I'd already taken the well into it a cm or so.
Opened the sides out to the same curve as the rails, and it certainly looks better, but not as marked as your photoshop job. Think the angle of the photo makes the rail look more curved than it is.

I'm in the process of fitting the closed cell foam for mast track and foot strap plugs.

don't know if you guys are interisted in this but over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about a new speed board design which, in theory, would mean you don't have to go and look for flat water to do your speed runs!!
the design is taken from a seaplanes hulls which provide an almost frictionless situation when reaching a particular speed for take off. The hulls have been adapted to a 60' multihull:
http://www.parlier.org/hydraplaneur/index.php
have a look in the photo gallery.

Some basic theory is that a pocket of low pressure is formed behind the 'step' of the hull that ventilates the rest of the hull behind it, creating a very low drag stiuation and the less drag you have the faster you go!! The 'V' in the front half of the hull acts like a wave piercer, and then the flanges on the side hold the spray and water down, thus giving it lift! so then you have the front of the hull generating lift and the back of the hull being ventelated, so efectivley the hull is hovering above the water and chop rather than skinning the surface like a windsurfer on the plane.
don't know how much of this will applie to speed windsurfing but the theory side of it sounds good.

and how is you new board going decrepit??

thanks
James

Jamesy said...

don't know if you guys are interisted in this but over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking about a new speed board design which, in theory, would mean you don't have to go and look for flat water to do your speed runs!!

Sort of like this?


This was the board I built and sailed for the 1981 Weymouth speed week, and at the time (seeing as there was no-one else competing) it was the Australian speed record holder.

Hi Guys, we've just returned from 7 weeks in Europe.
No windsurfing I'm afraid, the closest we got to that was seeing an old Wally hanging from the ceiling of a garage in Malta, and a couple of kites flying off a beach in the South of France, (it was only 5kts so I think they were just learning to fly the things.

The board's still on the trestles, after I've finished all the the backed up chores, (depends how much help in the garden/jungle my wife wants), I'll start on the deck herex, could be another month before it's finished, just in time for some wind I hope.

Pacey, that's an interesting looking board, what sort of speed did you get out of it????

hardie said...

decrepit said...


Can anybody see any problems????

how's progress going decrepit (have you got any more pics)
the glassing is going to be a nightmare without a wheel, have you thought about glassing the steep's(deck as well),you can glass a 90deg angle with uidirectional(as long as the fibers are in the same direction) and a fiberglassing wheel, it's easy to move the fibers into tight corners and tight angles and remove air bubbles, im talking about the steeps not the whole board

tell us more i'm all ears