Why Starboard is keeping mum on Bjorn winning on Starboard ?

[Deja Vu]

What's really interesting is that some knew what they were talking about two years ago while others didn't have a clue. Interesting thread from a historical perspective.

[viking]

Bjorn dominates?? I thought A2 was champion again this year, I must have had some bad informations

[mark h]

The thread was about Sylt only, and BD did dominate this event, 1st position for him at this event

Second overall and only 33 points behind AA. If his equipment had turned up at Alacati on time, I think the gap might have been even smaller, or maybe even won overall??

Congrats to Cyril for finishing the year on the podium.

PWA crew did a great job this year and all in tough times. The live streaming at Sylt was wicked

Starboard is already way more dominant in market than Mistral ever was !!!

Originally Posted by steveC

the PWA bailed from Slalom after his 2000 win.

is there a logic to this? Current slalom is rather untactical, it doesn;t even look like there are priority rules.. FW has at least something of sailing rules left but PWA has nothing but "display art"

[SeanAUS120]

No tactics in slalom?

Nothing has changed in the tactics. There's still plenty of things going on during the race to get the best start, best position on the line, where you want to be coming in to the turns for clear air, good lines out of the gybe. Same as it was in 2000 or whenever.

The difference now is we have NO RULES during the race. Basically all that changes is that you don't have buoy room or normal ISAF rules when boats meet at the mark. Essentially that just opens the door for a newer set of applied tactics; that of which meaning you either want to keep clear of people, or squeeze in to impossible gaps at the turn and smack others with your boom and hope you can hang on to the rig. I think it's fun and exciting for slalom. Most of the guys love the no rules!

[davide]

Originally Posted by nonopr

... The prices we are paying at retail for any given Starboard Board should be much lower than what they are right now. You can buy a custom board for the same price, better quality and less weight, limited production you ca buy for less money and better quality than starboard and a Full production board you should be paying significantly less than what you are paying for a SB board in retail.

I own 3 Starboards, 2 RRD and 2 non-cobra (I won't name the non-cobra, but they are well known in some circles). After a couple of years of use the non-cobra are a horror to look at: peeling paint, dents because of too little reinforcement on the rails, discolorations on the bottom, and the top was rough from day one (the builder, sigh, claimed that he skipped the fairing step to "save weight"). The Starboards and RRD by comparisons are beauties, with stunning construction and finish. One of the starboard had a little problem that was fixed immediately under warranty. One of the non-cobra came with a dent, and that was it! .... no warranty, no way to send it back

Personally, unless a custom builder lives 30 miles from me (and he is somebody of the caliper of Mike Zajicek) I would rather go with a production board any day.

[Deja Vu]

Originally Posted by davide

I own 3 Starboards, 2 RRD and 2 non-cobra (I won't name the non-cobra, but they are well known in some circles). After a couple of years of use the non-cobra are a horror to look at: peeling paint, dents because of too little reinforcement on the rails, discolorations on the bottom, and the top was rough from day one (the builder, sigh, claimed that he skipped the fairing step to "save weight"). The Starboards and RRD by comparisons are beauties, with stunning construction and finish. One of the starboard had a little problem that was fixed immediately under warranty. One of the non-cobra came with a dent, and that was it! .... no warranty, no way to send it back

Personally, unless a custom builder lives 30 miles from me (and he is somebody of the caliper of Mike Zajicek) I would rather go with a production board any day.

Were those boards you won't talk about from NZ?

[davide]

Originally Posted by Deja Vu

Were those boards you won't talk about from NZ?

About 39°04'S 174°05'E

[geo]

Bah.
I personally own or owned 5 of those 'non Cobra' boards. Finish on my '08 sample is very light, but never gave any problem. '09 and '10 samples are superbly finished, but at the cost of some more weight. Each of them costed me more or less as much as what could have been for any Cobra built board. Rockerlines are still perfectly smooth, flat panels are still flat, as it has always been from day 1.
Past Summer I happened to sail a few times with an athlete sponsored by a 'Cobra' make, racing at national and PWA level; we swapped boards and sails a few times, his board was performing, well, let's say "comparably" to my 'non-Cobra' NZ board; but the bottom of his board was showing clear signs of careful fairing, and in some spots was faired so deep that one could have easily poked a finger through. My board was/is finished just as carefully, but right from the factory, outer laminate is integer and fully strong, no need for a pro shaper to fair it.
Never experienced any strap plug popping off the deck, and that seems to be saying a lot in these days. I have small barely visible dents on the nose of two of my boards, from mast hits that probably would have split in two most more usual boards.
In my view, either Davide had a quarrel with the boss of that 'non-Cobra' make, or must be a very unlucky guy.

To sum it up, my personal view about the boards from that weird NZ make is that they are, to say the least, seriously built. I am planning to order 3 new boards from that weird NZ builder as soon as the new shapes will be released.