09 Phantoms hit Aussie shores
July 3, 2009 · Print This Article
At last the 09 replacement Phantoms have arrived in Australia. In accordance with the warranty instructions my friend and I took our 08 model Phantoms to our local Starboard retailer to pick up our new boards. With much excitement we swapped over centreboards, foot straps and mast tracks from the old board to the new.
Ok so I have not used the new board yet but it looks good. I really appreciated the new shape and lines that appear to be more subtle than the previous. In particular, I liked the ridges on the deck that travel for a good portion of the length. While these were perhaps a weight saving and strengthening feature I think that they will be great for light wind railing as a foot hold.
On first inspection the reduced rocker appears interesting as does the increased vee that runs through the board. It is quite pronounced particularly when you compare it to the original phantom. No doubt this will be advantageous for railing and reducing wetted surface area up wind?
Starboard claims a completing new construction method for this years board….
The new 2009 Phantom Race 380 is built deck and bottom in full PVC sandwich and unidirectional 80g carbon. Flat-weaved and unidirectional, the UD80 carbon iber is the most eficient iber ever used in the construction of a windsurf board, weighing a mere 80g per square meter and providing extremely high stiffness. A new oversized side-plate holds the 78cm daggerboard, spreading the load evenly and ensuring total reliability, durability and functionality.
I hope that all of this means that the boards will be more robust and last for many seasons as Raceboard sailors generally tend to keep their boards for many years. All of the old Equips out there is evidence of this.
While it is winter in Australia at the moment my local club has a winter race this weekend. So I will get some better photos of the board in action and give you my feedback. I would love to hear from others who may have used the new board. What do you think?
Starboard’s website is www.star-board.com
Hi Pat!
Few days ago in Finland we got also new Phantoms. But they came too late for the Raceboard Worlds 2009. We didn´t get new boards for ourselves before the trip to the Germany. After the worlds we starts our training with new SuperPhantoms! =)
Let us know how the board works!
Blini
I have also received my new board.
I hold grave fears as to the robustness for normal bumping around associated with windsurfing. I was fitting my new upwind straps when I dropped my screwdriver it fell no more than 2.5cms but that was enough to put a hole in the deck that required sealing .
So robust I think not !!
Here are results and photos from the Raceboard Worlds 2009:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dwsv.net&langpair=de|en&hl=de&ie=UTF8
There you can see also what boards and sails the best one used.
In the first 10 best group were Mistral PanAm, Mistral Equipes, New and Old Phantoms, Mistral One Designs…
Sails in high winds were mostly Neil Pryde RS:X 9,5 sails and in light winds Aerolite.com, Starboard RB and LeFebre 9,5 and Slim 9,5.
I was first who used Starboard’s old Phantom and Starboard’s 9,5 RB sail in all winds. I was 10th in overall results.
Keep on surfing
Blini
I have also received my new Phantom and like the new shape as well. I did notice my upwind beating straps do not fit the new board very well. The screw holes in the new Phantom are farther apart allowing only the longer of the two straps to fit, and even then, that strap is fairly tight and flat. I’m awaiting a new set of straps from my dealer.
Looking forwrad to try it out this weekend.
Woody – CAN757
My 2009 Phantom 380 . I am generally happy with the sailing performance of my Phantom 380. I admit that I don’t have the sailing skills to sail it to its potential but I am working on that ever so slowly. However, I have always had concerns about robustness and the design of the centreboard pivot on the 2007 and the 2009 Phantoms. On the 2007 Phantom the pivot holes in the 3 mm thick GRP shims on either side of the centreboard had elongated after 1 season of use. The shim material did not seem tough enough to withstand the contact pressure that the brass pivot pin would apply. To check the wear on the shims requires 8 self tapping screws to be removed so it is not a check that is done very often, if at all. If you launch from sandy beaches then abrasive sand is almost certainly going to work into the pivot point. I had hoped that the new 2009 Phantoms would have addressed this problem. Alas no! I would really like to hear from the designers what the design reasoning was in initially adopting this centreboard pivoting system and then choosing to continue with it. Perhaps it was that the shims are cheap usable parts that are easily replaced. Based on the wear that I can see occurring on my new 2009 shims, (the board has been used 8 times this season from a non sandy launching area) I think the shims will need to be replaced every 1-2 seasons. I hope Starboard are making lots of spare replacement shims. I will be very upset if replacement shims are not easily available from the retailers at a reasonable price.
As I see it the shim wear problem could be reduced if the brass pivot pin was made slightly longer. The centreboard slot in my board is 30 mm wide, the brass pivot pin is 28 mm long, so the pin can “float” across the slot by 2 mm. The current system does not allow any “control” of where the pin sits. In the worst situation the pivot pin would be seated fully in one shim (3mm) and be seated only 1 mm into the other shim. That is what I think has been happening with my board as one shim pivot hole is already showing elongation (after 8 races). I am thinking that if I make a new brass pin that is (say) 29.8 mm long, then the pin will only be able to “float” 0.2 mm and remain reasonably seated in each shim all the time. Is anyone else seeing the same sort of wear?
I wonder if somebody can tell me something about the new Starboard raceboard sail 9,5. We are sailing in Oslo (Norway), and here are very often light winds. Is it very important to have a spesial mast or…
Can anybody give me some rig.tips. I have ordered the sail, and I will get it in mars/april.
We are sailing regatta from april to oktober here.
Knut Loken, 65 years old