Serenity

[Don]

I would like to hear from sailors who have purchased the Serenity.
What have your experiences been and what is your skill level.
Please tell me all you can .

Thank you in advance
Don

[Roger]

Hi Don,
When there's not enough wind to plane or a wide formula board, the Serenity is just incredible.
Rig a smaller sail I've used a 9.0 Severne Gator (seemed kinda big and didn't seem to add much to the speed); 7.8 race sail, 7.5 Severne Glide (pretty good power and handling due to it's large draft and light weight); 7.5 m2 Sailworks Retro, 6.6 Sailworks Hucker and 5.5 m2 Sailworks Retro.
In all cases the Serenity was by far the fastest board on the water until the wind got steady at around 9-10 knots.
It just glides "serenely" along.
My skill level is probably considered "advanced" but I've had sailors with much less skill sail the Serenity and once the get balanced (takes a couple of tries for most sailors, regardless of skill level) they have no real problems sailing the Serenity upwind, reaching or broad reaching. Off the wind is a bit tricky and I'm still working on that as well as jibing.
Tacking is pretty easy, but it takes a while with a board this long.
Overall, when nearly all sailors are sitting on the beach complaining, you can be out on the water having a ball on the Serenity.
It handles alot more wind than most expect. It's pretty quick in more wind as well, but won't keep up with a formula or other wide boad once they are powered up and planing, but it planes along in it's own fashion with the nose well up out of the water and the bow wave moved back almost to the mast foot.
Hope this helps,

[Per]

Hi Roger..
Did you (or anybody) ever measure the speed by GPS?

[Roger]

Hi Per,
No, I haven't, but it's on my list and I hope to get back to testing it
later in the week. I'm on a mission until Wednesday.
I may even try to race it next weekend and see how it does in light fluky (Raleigh/Durham, NC ) winds against the formula and longboard fleet.
Hope this helps,

[Roger]

Hi Per,
Actually, I looked and back on Nov. 10th I was sailing the Serenity with the Severne Glide 7.5 (designed to power the Serenity I believe) in a measure 4-6 knots of wind, diminishing to alomost 0 knots at the end.
Many of the individual GPS legs were in the 5-6 knot range so I'm pretty sure the Serenity was going at or slightly faster than windspeed and up at least higher than 45 deg. off the true wind.
It was pretty amazing that as the wind diminished to almost zero the speeds came down, but the board was still making 0.5-2.0 knots on the legs.
Wish I had a way to "publish" the tracks to those interested.
I have it in GPS Trackmaker and Garmin Mapsource.
Interested?

[Don]

HI Roger,
Thanks for the reply. I sailed my old Mistral competition this
P.M.. It really was quite good, (10mph and a 9.5 sail). However
my thoughts were on how a Serenity would do in these conditions.
Please let us know how you did against the longboard fleet in
your race. Please continue to give us your impressins as you sail
the board more extensively. Based on the few responsed to my
original question, there doesn't seem to be too many Serenity
sailboards out there yet. Please keep us posted.
Don

[Roger]

Hi Don,
And.... for the time being (until at least the end of December) there won't be any additional Serenitys as the distributor has completely sold out all that arrived in the early container.
If you live in the USA or Canada, and you want a Serenity, now's the
time to get your order in through your local Starboard retailer.
Hope this helps,

[John_Hibbard]

Hi Guys,

I am out in Dahab, Egypt at the moment and with the light winds in the late afternoon we have been having some great sessions on the Serenity. We have been using it with a 7.8 Tushingham Lightning in a range of winds from 2knts to 15 knts. I'm really keen to get a GPS on it and see how quick it is in light winds.

It glides really smoothly over the water and once up on the rail it really feels smooth. Turning took a little bit of getting used to but felt very much like sailing on a long board i.e you have to move back down the board to get a good quick turn for a tack. It loves cruising across the wind and points really high.

We have had a range of sailors on it and all are addicted to it. You can check out a few pics and a story on my website www.k007.co.uk

I will report back as soon as we have some GPS speeds logged.

Cheers

[CharlesL]

Hi Roger,

Well, our winds are looking particularly light and fluky for this weekend... so much so that I fear between the winds and the air temp that few people will turn out for this weekend's race. At least 2 people with long boards (one of which is an EquipeII) should show up, but not as many as we normally see. I will also not be able to make the race, as I found out recently I must work this weekend. You are still of course welcome to join our race, but I just wanted to let you know the status. I'm really sorry, as I was hoping to compare the Serenity to my venerable old Superlight.

Charles

[o2bnme]

Yeah, I think Charles is right. What he failed to mention is that he is so far ahead of everyone that he doesn't have to show up for this race. And with not many people showing up, whoever wins won't get many points. ;-)

And with the wind blowing at the coast, I have a feeling most of our local sailors who aren't working might make the trek to OBX. I'm thinking about heading out with my cousin (windsurfer from Long Island). My wife was looking forward to meeting you and getting a look at the Gemini. Maybe I'll be able to convince her the drive to the coast is worth it and we'll see you in Avon!