Railing a raceboard

I am a self confessed windsurfing tragic who has a passion for all areas of windsurfing particularly longboard . However, at the top of my list of preferred longboards are raceboards both old and new. While I appreciate the Windsurfer One Design for its robustness and simplicity and I love my Lechner. There is nothing like a – they have the best all round performance, love a breeze and will also shine in light winds.

But for me, it’s nothing quite as practical as this. It is the sheer joy, verging on spirituality of sailing your raceboard in 15 knots of breeze heading to the top mark with your toes in the straps and the board on its rail slicing through the water. It’s hunting for lifts and pressure and the excitement of an upwind tactical duel. It’s driving the board through swell and chop, fast tacks and pushing the board and rig for that bit of extra speed. To me, these elements combined are both intoxicating and sheer joy.

After picking a few people off on the up hill leg and arriving at the top mark thinking “there is no way that it can get better than that” you turn the board, let the outhaul out, crank the track back, a few quick pumps and you’re on the plane. With your feet in the back straps you navigate your way around the swell and chop to look for the ideal and tactically right gibing position, flip to the other side and it’s on again. Like a freight train out of control you arrive at the bottom mark and get to do it all again.

While I love the down hill for the sheer speed and exhilaration I am nonetheless addicted to railing a raceboard jostling for position in the joy of an upwind tactical duel. To my way of thinking not many things are as good as this.

Over the years I have had a number of different raceboards from Fanatic Mega Cats through to Mistral One Designs and Pan Ams. Of these boards the Equip and Pan Am I really appreciate. They are a classic design, and are arguably the best all round raceboard that perform particularly well in light winds and have forgiving rails for high winds and chop. But by far my favourite raceboard that I have owned is the F2 Race 380. As a heavier gent (90kg) this board has the volume and a little extra width to get on the plane early and stay there longer through the lulls. With its square rails and extra volume in the tail it can be a bit of a handful in a blow on the down hill leg. But up wind it comes into its own with its square rails digging in and delivering that bit if extra height.

The new crop of Raceboards that are on the market have borrowed elements from this proud history and have pushed the design on to new levels. I have only used the recently released Exocet Warp X 380 on one occasion but it was a joy to sail and in the short time that I sailed it showed its potential. It sprung to the rail and hunted upwind well. With its extra volume it planes early and has a turn of speed that is impressive. The step tail is an interesting development, but one which I think is on balance probably not worth it. This is particularly the case as more often than not, and perhaps wrongly, Raceboards tend to only be sailed in light and medium winds, say up to 20knots.

The team at Starboard have also been hard at work and appear to have an impressive board in the Phantom Race 380 which is due for release shortly. While I have not had the opportunity of sailing it yet Starboard appear to have recognised the joy of a high volume raceboard with fast lines. It will be exciting to see these two boards together to see how they mix it up with the equips and the like. One thing is for sure raceboards are alive and kicking. It must not only be me who enjoys the sheer thrill of railing a raceboard.