Phantom Hits Aussie Shores
July 9, 2008 · Print This Article
While it is the middle of our winter, the first batch of the long awaited Starboard Phantom 380 raceboard has arrived in Australia. An eager bunch of Australian raceboarders joined the NSW distributor, Sam Parker from Wind Surf n Snow, for a small Phantom arrival celebration at his shop. The lucky three who had their name down for the first boards enjoyed a beer in the festive atmosphere as foot straps and centreboards were installed and the new board was inspected and discussed.
It seems an eternity since Starboard announced these boards and we placed our orders. Initial inspection would seem to suggest that it was worth the wait and that this is going to be a great board that has an interesting pedigree. My first thought was that it was chunky like my F2 Race 380 but upon closer inspection I saw similarities to Pan Ams and Fanatics that I have owned in the past
As one of the lucky first three in Australia to get my hands on the Phantom, I am eagerly awaiting getting it out on the water to see if the board can live up to the expectations and hype. As fate would have it my local sailing club is having a winter race tomorrow where I will get the board out on the water and see how she goes against some of the older Raceboards. Of course I will be doing a full review for LBWS when I have had a chance to get to know the board better.
I can’t wait for your review Pat. I am still on the Mistral Prodigy and very keen to go back to the traditional longboard. As I too had Fanatic, I am interested in it’s similarity.
Congradulations Pat .I got my Phantom one month ago and have
found that anyone who has sailed a long board can get comfortable on it in 5 minutes It is more stable than my Equipe but reqires more pressure to rail it. Weight is about the same or slightly less. You can go upwind slowly at a very high angle or bear off a bit for speed depending on the wind. Downwind speed
is very good.Mast track operates smoother than any I have ever
used.Daggerboard is easy to get up and down but in my case required over 3mm of shimming. There was a small hole in the
front and back of daggerboard well right out of the box and got a crack in well at deck joint after 3 sessions. Repaired all and still
would recommend board to anyone who is heavier and wants to be competitive.
Konig.cz delivers now also boardbags for Starboard Phantom 380.
Those heel indents for the dagger look like a good idea. The matching sail is up on the 2009 site too.
http://star-board.com/2009/pages/products/v_phantomRace.php
Are the boards really coming in at 14kg ? Quite an achievement for Cobra at 295 litres