Have just become an official member of the Speed Raceboard owners club with the recent purchase of an original Speed Pro Am 250.
While it's the newest board in my stable it is also the oldest. Made circa 1984.

Was very surprised to find the hull weight, volume and overall measurements are very close to my 10 yr younger F2 Lightning.
Main difference being position of mast track and bootstraps.
Even the Pro Am Centreboard is longer and higher aspect than the F2 and Phantom, in keeping with modern CB design trends

The Phantom and Lightning pictured below have each won a QLD championship, I see no reason why this 36 yo board couldn't still win races.

Upgrades currently underway:
- replaced US finbox with power box
- repositioned mastrack aft
- repositioned footstraps aft to match power box and mastrack position
- Added CB slot gasket



The Speed factory was located less than 5 kms from my house so thought it would be a worthy winter project to restore this board and get it back on the race course. Can't wait to try it out.

From previous posts I know there are some restored Speeds on the Sunshine coast, perhaps we can organise a Speed owners day cruise up there this summer...

Good score.
Question, why a power box and not a Tuttle box?
The Starboard would be a tuttle box.
More race fins available in Tuttle.

Nice work Mark! Great to see another SPEED RB being resurrected. I've got 2 Speed F1s. One fitted with PB. Other is ElStocko. Havnt had em out in ages. I Use the PB board for light winds. But the ElStocko really gets goin in 20kts. Seems to trim a bit better at speed than my PB modified board.
Long live SPEED RBs.

380 phantom n My favourite Speed F1 ElStocko.

PB modified F1.

Always keen for some RB sailing around here.

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515 said..
Good score.
Question, why a power box and not a Tuttle box?

Deep tuttle would need to be positioned much further forward than I wanted due less tail thickness than Phantom.
Phantom tail is thicker and wider due to batwings and runs a bigger fin. Std phantom fin is 52cm.
Fin size is mostly relative to tail width.
I want back foot over leading edge of fin at the right distance from tail.
Pintail raceboards don't need a 50+cm fin.
My F2 is a similar width pintail with powerbox, so can use the same 40-45cm fins for both boards.
In general must people over fin raceboards, too much fin area just creates drag most of the time.

^ I've tried 50cm fins. Sure it gets planing early. But try turning it!! 35-45cm is all that's needed.
The Big SPEED lit up.

Thanks Olschool,
Was interesting to compere board measurements of ProAm with an Speed F1 that is down the club.
The mast track got longer and CB/ MT position moved further aft.
Rails got boxier, but is 1cm narrower at widest point.
I don't have access to an SR250, but would like to measure it as well.
Would also be interesting to measure up that early model SB phantom to compare with 377 Phantom and the older boards.

In my experience the 380 is faster than the Speed in light wind. 15kt n up the Speed is quicker n easier to control. The tail of the SPEEDS are essentially an old slalom board planshape. Love having all that bonnet up in the air n riding on the last metre of hull. YEEEWWW!!!

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olskool said..
Love having all that bonnet up in the air n riding on the last metre of hull. YEEEWWW!!!

Yeah, me too

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azuli said..

olskool said..
Love having all that bonnet up in the air n riding on the last metre of hull. YEEEWWW!!!

Yeah, me too

Me too

They are truly magnificent to rail up wind

If anyone is interested in a Speed F1, I have one available. It's complete, dry with no leaks. Needs a little tlc like new sugar coat but otherwise in reasonable condition. The deck grip has now been removed. I'm in North Brisbane.

I still have my original Speed SL250 won a couple of State Titles on it

I also have a Warrior in the shed, does any one know/have spares or a replacement for the mast track?

Speed Raceboard restoration completed. Upgrade included:
- replaced us finbox with power box
- repositioned mastrack aft
- repositioned footstraps aft to match power box and new mastrack position
- added CB slot gasket
- carbon reinforcing to CB
- 2 pac repaint hull and centreboard
- regrip

All with no gain in overall weight.
Performance is even better than expected.

They were a great board, although a few of the thrashed ones developed a couple of cracks. Keep an eye on centreboard case area. They turn a lot better than later faster boats, and the vee between the concaves softened the ride for a race board.
I got one for a song and have removed the finbox for puddle board research.

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plywoodboy said..
They were a great board, although a few of the thrashed ones developed a couple of cracks. Keep an eye on centreboard case area.

Thanks. yes also reinforced the CB box when I did the gasket.
For reinforcing I reused some left over carbon bottom laminate from a formula board that I reinforced the finbox in.

I have seen several SB phantoms with cracked CB cases near the bottom that let water into the board.
It is an area that is out of sight, but below the waterline and under load when sailing upwind especially in high wind/choppy conditions,
so cracks can go unseen for a long time and let quite a bit of water in over time.

I have an original Pro Am 250 exactly like the OP. It cracked around the CB slot years ago and I have attempted to repair it a number of times only to have it crack and leak again. I used it up that the Burrum Heads event a few years ago and had fun, but it again gainded a few Kg of water weight. It's been sitting in the roof of my shed eversince to try and dry it out again, but I have just about given up and ever sealing it again. it's a huge disappointment to me as I loved riding that board and would still love to use it.

I bought it new in the 80's and raced it in many of the windsurfing events on Port Phillip Bay, but I also raced it in mixed fleets on handicap at the Local Yacht club.

Speed SR 250L test from Freesail Jan/ Feb 1989:

Thanks for posting the review.
According to an inflation calculator on the internet, $1,775 of 1989 dollars would be worth: $3,578.63 in 2019.
Apparently the RRP for a new raceboard these days is approaching $6K (board only).

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azuli said..
Thanks for posting the review.
According to an inflation calculator on the internet, $1,775 of 1989 dollars would be worth: $3,578.63 in 2019.
Apparently the RRP for a new raceboard these days is approaching $6K (board only).

Wages have also not kept pace of living costs since then either. About the only thing cheaper is tech and access to information.

The restored Speed claimed its first two bullets on the weekend, proving that a 35 year old raceboard can still be competitive against current boards and you don't need to spend a lot of money to get out racing. A little video of the fun below:

Great work on the restoration, from memory the original pro am was made in the same factory as the wiatata and elimanator boards. Steve mc Geary decided he could do a better job and opened his factory in lyton.

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bc said..
Great work on the restoration, from memory the original pro am was made in the same factory as the wiatata and elimanator boards. Steve mc Geary decided he could do a better job and opened his factory in lyton.

Does this mean the AHD boards for example the AHD Eliminator started here including the Omega boards ?

Testing my memory now , but pretty sure omega was form same factory. The quality was very up and down, Steve mc Geary and his wife Dee where perfectionist and came up with a great moulding process. I can remember Steve driving his Toyota Van over a board showing me how strong they where.

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bc said..
Great work on the restoration, from memory the original pro am was made in the same factory as the wiatata and elimanator boards. Steve mc Geary decided he could do a better job and opened his factory in lyton.

Thanks, and interesting to learn the history of these boards. Where was the original factory located where the ProAm and Wiatata boards were made?

My ProAm 250, the same model as Azuli's, was definitly made by Steve McGeary. I think his factory was still in Qeensland at that stage. The first one I got had pinholes around the rails. A few weeks later he came down from Qld in his motor home and brought me a replacement at the Victorian Tiltles event. Thats the one I still have. Don't remember the year. . I vaguely remember that this was the first model he made under his name. Some time later, he moved his manufacturing down to Victoria, I think to Wangaratta? I had a couple of his earliest slalom boards as well, they are long gone, but I still have a later model 'Speed' 9 foot something (9'1"?) in another shed somewhere.

As I remember it, AHD started in Australia as an offshoot of the Waitata operation. I think Tom Ludekie was involved in their designs. I bought a few of Toms used slalom boards in the very early 90's and raced them to win the Victorian Slalom series. I still have the largest (295) of those boards and a friend still has the smallest (265) in her shed.

The thing that all these boards share in common was the construction method and technology. They were moulded around a pre-shaped Polystyrene core with fiberglass inpregnated with a foaming epoxy resin. The resin expanded to fill the mould and create a thicker, low density skin. They are quite stiff for a board without a PVC sandwich. I understand the process requires a very stongly reinforced mould to handle the pressure from the expanding resin.

Later, in the early to mid 90's, the foaming resin technology was aquired by Steve Hayden of 'Extreme Sailboards - Torquay''. Steve set up a factory somewhere in Western Victoria (Warnambool?) with the intention of production. I aquired the first or second 285 Slalom out of the first mould which was a pretty nice board (but unfortunately has a Powerbox). A disaster followed when he broke the mould on the subsequent board, and I believe he abandoned the idea a local manufacture and went to Cobra for all the susequent boards. The Extreme 270 slalom I got shortly after the first board was a Cobra sandwich board with tuttle box. it is very light and stiff. The brand only lasted a year or so in windsurfing and switched over to making Surf Lifesaving craft. I still have Both of those Extreme slalom Boards somewhere in my 'Museum' too.

Speed ProAm 250.

AHD 295 and Extreme 285. Both pressure moulded.

Extreme 270 from Cobra. Still labled as Pressure Moulded, but it was standard Cobra sandwich epoxy construction. (No room in the shed for this one so it lives outside. )

Great SPEED RB vid there Mark. Awesome to see theyre still very competitive 30+ years later.

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sailquik said..
My ProAm 250, the same model as Azuli's, was definitly made by Steve McGeary. I think his factory was still in Qeensland at that stage. The first one I got had pinholes around the rails. A few weeks later he came down from Qld in his motor home and brought me a replacement at the Victorian Tiltles event. Thats the one I still have. Don't remember the year. . I vaguely remember that this was the first model he made under his name. Some time later, he moved his manufacturing down to Victoria, I think to Wangaratta? I had a couple of his earliest slalom boards as well, they are long gone, but I still have a later model 'Speed' 9 foot something (9'1"?) in another shed somewhere.

As I remember it, AHD started in Australia as an offshoot of the Waitata operation. I think Tom Ludekie was involved in their designs. I bought a few of Toms used slalom boards in the very early 90's and raced them to win the Victorian Slalom series. I still have the largest (295) of those boards and a friend still has the smallest (265) in her shed.

The thing that all these boards share in common was the construction method and technology. They were moulded around a pre-shaped Polystyrene core with fiberglass inpregnated with a foaming epoxy resin. The resin expanded to fill the mould and create a thicker, low density skin. They are quite stiff for a board without a PVC sandwich. I understand the process requires a very stongly reinforced mould to handle the pressure from the expanding resin.

Later, in the early to mid 90's, the foaming resin technology was aquired by Steve Hayden of 'Extreme Sailboards - Torquay''. Steve set up a factory somewhere in Western Victoria (Warnambool?) with the intention of production. I aquired the first or second 285 Slalom out of the first mould which was a pretty nice board (but unfortunately has a Powerbox). A disaster followed when he broke the mould on the subsequent board, and I believe he abandoned the idea a local manufacture and went to Cobra for all the susequent boards. The Extreme 270 slalom I got shortly after the first board was a Cobra sandwich board with tuttle box. it is very light and stiff. The brand only lasted a year or so in windsurfing and switched over to making Surf Lifesaving craft. I still have Both of those Extreme slalom Boards somewhere in my 'Museum' too.

Speed ProAm 250.

AHD 295 and Extreme 285. Both pressure moulded.

Extreme 270 from Cobra. Still labled as Pressure Moulded, but it was standard Cobra sandwich epoxy construction. (No room in the shed for this one so it lives outside. )

there is a Steve Hayden Extreme at our tip at the moment. Its a large slalom board, still fairly narrow but lots of volume, i am guessing 130 litres or so, really thick from mast track all the way back to the rear strap, maybe course slalom ?

Former board which I gave away. Wish I had not done so. NO JUMPING warning is cool.

Ahhh. Steves Victorian factory was near Ballarat.

That Speed 8'8" was my favourite Speed Slalom model. It was faster and more versitile than the Extreme 270 I had at the same time

My sailing buddy had that Speed model and we spent many hours fun racing each other and swapping boards. Whoever was on that one was invariably faster and felt more comfortable. I recon my mate might still have it.......

Ok ive gotta confess. Im a SPEED junkie. Ive got the 8'8"WCS, Speed 125, 2x Speed F1 RBs. Love those sharp rails n sleek designs. Although, everytime i use one i end up with bark missing from my shins from pushing the board around in the current when beachstarting.