Dont quote me but the guys at the beach a few weeks back were thinking intro offer on rig was also heavily discounted.

the price I was told seemed very low and the rig comes with 2 piece mast, clamp boom etc.

the board is definitely $750 for intro offer. Which is stupid cheap. I mean new boards are 4k from some brands


this is the real thing. It's the price of a sup. Sell your sup and use the WLT.


seems from my brief demo the board will carry a huge range of rigs not just the wod rig.

the wod rigs are a lot of fun and let you race in the class.

i spoke with a couple of guys and everyone is saying ring wingenuity for details so i'd do that.

for my opinion, If the point is to reinvigorate the sport I'm not sure what benefit there is in excluding people from early bird offers.

Gestalt said..
i spoke with a couple of guys and everyone is saying ring wingenuity for details so i'd do that.

for my opinion, If the point is to reinvigorate the sport I'm not sure what benefit there is in excluding people from early bird offers.

It could be because it compensates those who have been supporting the class for the fact that their old boards just become largely uncompetitive.

To get afloat with a cheap complete rig you could look at buying an old poly One Design and use its sail, boom and mast - I've seen some recently. The old board can become a trainer, SUP or kid's board. We're hearing that they are still competitive under 8 knots and they could still do well for kids, since the narrower width can make up for the extra weight if the sailor is light.

At $1999.00 for a complete set-up delivered to depot, it's a bargain. That's a very cheap entry level, both for learning and to keep for family fun, and the ability to join in One Design racing.
Like Chris said, it helps with the changeover of those who support OD racing and now feel the need to upgrade to continue.
However : You need to contact Windgenuity to get all the details from the horses mouth.
Of 128 board's, surely all of those people aren't existing One Design racer's or club member's?

Don't worry about Grandpa's, what about Dad's? Oh crap, I started late.(Having Kid's I mean).

Gestalt said..

Chris 249 said..

Gestalt said..
i spoke with a couple of guys and everyone is saying ring wingenuity for details so i'd do that.

for my opinion, If the point is to reinvigorate the sport I'm not sure what benefit there is in excluding people from early bird offers.

It could be because it compensates those who have been supporting the class for the fact that their old boards just become largely uncompetitive.

To get afloat with a cheap complete rig you could look at buying an old poly One Design and use its sail, boom and mast - I've seen some recently. The old board can become a trainer, SUP or kid's board. We're hearing that they are still competitive under 8 knots and they could still do well for kids, since the narrower width can make up for the extra weight if the sailor is light.

I don't disagree those supporting the class should be rewarded.

but that is exactly the thought process that's killing our sport. making this gear available to those that don't have longboards or learner gear and those that have never raced is where the growth is and from what I'm reading was the entire goal for the gear.

treat everyone by the same rules and watch what happens.

So you want Cobra and Windgenuity to collapse? There can't be any profit at the special price since that's below what Anaconda etc sell SUPs for, without a centreboard and mast track. Windgenuity have been supporting the sport for years and no one keeps in business by not making a profit.

You don't treat people by the same rules if they are in different positions. People who have been supporting the class deserve to be rewarded, just as other businesses support loyal and regular customers. And the people who are in the class are the ones who stand to lose by having the existing boards replaced.

The new initiative must largely depend for its start-up on the support of the existing members. If they had all voted against it because they didn't want to lose existing fleet members then the Windsurfer LT would not have had the support of existing fleets and we'd have had competition between two similar classes.

An introductory special for existing loyal customers is standard marketing.

Maybe Cobra could rebuild and improve on the F2 380 Race as the next project and put out at these prices board only. Call it the Bombora Pan Am Race, make it lighter and stronger than before with tip top mast track, tuttle finbox, gasket covers and centreboard etc. I would buy one.Notice Monty Spindler sails one. These are great boards I believe, presenting an opportunity for the Bombora name to be reborn on the raceboard scene, leveraging up on the skills of Bruce Wylie again and Cobra. Windgenuity could benefit and re-use the Bombora name if still available. An Australian raceboard brand would be reborn, harking back to efforts which at one time competed in the Pan Am Cup in Hawaii. In this way the numbers would be achieved for production runs for the board as required by raceboard rules.

Could you make the F2 "lighter and stronger"? Has there been an improvement in materials technology that would allow such an improvement, without an extreme increase in price? Perhaps the closest comparable "hull" would be a Moth, and their hulls seem to be close to double the price.

I had the older F2 Race boards and loved them. I loved racing them too. I never tried the F2 380, but wonder why it would need to be lighter anyhow?? Stronger would be good though.

I would love to have a Phantom to race but the cost of entry/participation is STUPID high! I have been considering replacing my old cracked and waterlogged Speed ProAm with a later second hand model.

But now I am actually considering a Windsurfer LT.

That is something of a miracle, because I bought a new Windsurfer OD decades ago when they changed to the retractible CB. There was lots of racing in the area and a strong fleet I was keen to get involved with. Despite that, I ended up hating it with a passion. It was the worst race board I have ever used, crap to sail and no fun at all. I persevered for a month or two, racing and sailing it, trying to find out what it was that so many raved about. I never could so I eventually sold it. I continued to have many happy years of racing my F2's and later my Speed ProAm.

Over the years I sample sailed some other boards including a Mistral Superlight and Mistral Competition, and liked them a lot more, but there was no class racing anywhere near me, or anywhere as far as I could tell. Now I am keen to sail one of these LT's and see how I like it. One thing that worries me a bit is the stone age rig design, but I am open minded about that until I try it. At least it is low cost!

Sailquik, i had a brief spin on LT. Sure it goes better than the old WOD. Turns great, feels more balanced. But its still a Wally. Not to be compared to a RB from any era.

Personally, I change my thinking when I go from Raceboard to Wally. It's similar to changing from a cat to a monohull, or from a skiff to a Laser, or from a time-trial bike to a fixie. You can't expect them to feel too similar to each other since they are all designed for different purposes and have different strengths and weaknesses. Even the way they react when you sail badly or particularly well seems to be different; the Wally really tells you when you get it wrong but at the front end of the fleet no one has a really big speed edge. In Raceboards the board can feel nice even when it's sailing well under par, and some people seem to get a really big speed edge.

The rig is of an older design but physics don't change. It generates more lift than a modern rig for its size, but also generates more drag. The centre of effort does wander around, but then again the rig is dramatically lighter. Whether any particular person likes those characteristics is down to their own taste, but the rig suits the board pretty well because it's simple and very sensitive in light winds. When it's really howling you can also sail with the luff of the sail inside out, which is not as easy with a cambered sail. One of the good things, incidentally, is that the tight leach means that pumping isn't very effective upwind most of the time, which makes it easier to stop people pumping when racing. The Italians allow pumping at all times but unlike the situation in Raceboards, the rig means that there seems to be almost no difference between a pumper and a non-pumper upwind in course racing. Trust me, I tried pumping upwind in the Italian titles after there was a charter board stuff-up in the last race and it didn't work well.

My quiver contains all sorts of different rigs (four wingmasts, Wally sails, Laser sails, yacht sails, assymetric spinnakers, Canoe sails, etc) and all of them have as many good points as bad points IMHO - the only key is to match the sail's characteristics to the board or hull, its use, and your own taste.

Chris 249, Correct. Its a different strokes for different folks thing. LT is a fun nimble board. Its got its own unique 'feel' n style of ride. Im no expert but to me its going to be a match racing tactical style board. Whether its around a course or duelling with a mate its a great board to use.

I reckon starboard fanboys and fangirls will now get on board ! This is clever marketing and all other brands can get on board to promote this new Windsurfer class. This means for example Robby Naish can sail a Naish branded version and compete again on the Windsurfer class. How good would that be ?