OK, well as mentioned above I got to sail the board yesterday evening for the first time. Before I begin I would like to thank Phil for his patience with me during the process. Having a board designer / builder make a board for another designer can be interesting and I was pretty strong on protecting my design intent, so thanks Phil for obliging me. Also a thank you to KA's Peter Weitenberg for offering to hand deliver the board from Europe, it solved a big logistics issue for me.
So how did it go???? Well I will attempt to be as objective as I can reviewing something that I had designed.
The board is very well built , the finish is excellent, the punk graphics while I am sure not to everybody's taste look very cool and it came out right on target weight being 7.4 kgs with the 4 straps. Phil left the bottom mostly un-sanded straight off the gun as we had not decided how much of the paint to remove. I was happy to give it a rub when it arrived which I did and I may go a bit harder when I have some more time. The duel density pads are excellently done and it is fitted with Phil's new straps which are comfy. I asked for 4 screws per strap to prevent any twist which he did..
So on to the water. It was reasonably windy, I rigged a 5.7 KA Killer wave sail, this will be the smallest sail I will use on this board and the wind and sea conditions were probably at the top of the scale I designed it for. I jumped on and it floated, that's a good start!!! It actually had plenty of float with its 99 liters. It did not plane up intuitively, I had to shift my weight back a bit and then it popped. That is probably a combination of the rocker that does not have a true flat section and the cutouts which can be draggy until planing. Once up it felt very comfortable and I slipped into the straps easily ( which were setup a bit too loose). It did not feel super fast, maybe a little sticky at first but I was easily keeping pace with the other boards around me. I then thought OK, lets see what this baby can do and I cranked off the wind a little and committed to the rig. Second gear engaged, it sat on its tail and went. Ye ha!!!! Was smooth through the chop although the carbon bottom does feel stiff under the feet, glad it has those thicker pads!! It is fast, not slalom board fast but certainly very respectable.
OK , time to gibe. Tried to pick a wave in the messy conditions, took the foot out of the strap, pushed on the rail and around she went. A fairly wide arc turn, I must push harder on the next one I thought. Back to shore, was starting to feel more comfortable to push it and it responded accordingly. The nose looks low when you are sailing but never thought about catching the chop and it seemed really forgiving. There is a lot of shape under the mast track so it blew over the wave backs without effort.
Now on the inside gibe I pushed harder and it spun around on a short radius turn really nicely. It did drop it,s speed pretty rapidly though.
The next hour or so was just having fun on it. It did get windier and I was fully lit on the 5.7 overpowered at times but the board behaved itself well even in the messy steep waves. Felt it thump under the feet a bit at times, hmmmm maybe a carbon bottom wasn't the right call for the windy stuff???
Spotti was around so I shoved it in his face, take it for a spin!!!! He got going fine even though he does not usually ride a board this small and man was he going fast!!! easily blowing away everybody else on the water. His feedback after 10 mins or so...... It feels a bit sticky at first, need to get the weight back when popping on the plane. It,s fast when you push it. Sinks its tail a bit when you gibe, think the cutouts are a bit too big. Really smooth through the chop but does feel stiff under the feet and thumps hard every now and then. Your harness lines are too far forward!!!
I jumped back on for another 30 mins or so and had a very enjoyable sail. Experimented with the gibes, was trying to see if I could feel the duel rocker in the tail cuts doing anything. My last gibe of the day I really got it over on it's rail and it just whipped around like a bullet. So yes they do, but only when you really commit and get the board right over through the gibe. I am encouraged enough to think there is something in this feature worth further investigation.
Overall a successful first sail and I know I am going to get a lot of enjoyment out of this board. It,s sweet spot will probably be 6.6 rather than this smaller sail so I look forward to a nice 18- 20 knots. That is really what it was designed for.
Now for the next project!!!!!!
PS, Bad hat hair, what a shocker.
