Hi all, pulled out a few relics from the heyday, want to know if anyone has any info these babies, a Jimmy Lewis BIC Allegro, a Tom Leudecke Omega 2, and the real mystery, the Vortex. Currently speed sailing with the Central Coast Marauders aka Budgie Smugglers on newer gear but plan to throw these into the water, conditions permitting to see how they go. All info on their history, especially the Vortex would be great!
Cheers

The Vortex boards were shaped and made by Kai Hopf (now North Sails head designer) They were super quick boards!!!!
Remember sailing with him at Palmy back in the day and nothing could come close to him on those boards and custom made sails!!!!
Would be keen to see how you go, best of luck!!

Thanks mate, good info, had no idea about the Vortex, love to see how these old boards can blast with new sails. Also have an old F2 Sunset Slalom, that flew back in the day, can't wait to test them, currently my go to is a 2007 Naish Slalom Pro, getting good speeds out of it 34.5 knots but would like to see how these old boards perform with modern sails. Thanks for the info, will research more

Are the rails razor sharp and how far forward do the go?

Pretty much from tail to nose, rolls out a little a foot or more after mast base. Should be sweet in the water, if volume okay, I'm a little heavy now, 105 kg, so may need a big day!

The Allegro is on the large'ish size/width for a speed board. The Allegro is well known here at Sandy Point as Kato used one a lot. Not sure if he ever got 40 knots out of it though?

The other two look like nice small slalom boards.

The problem with using newer sails, especially slalom sails, with the older boards is the mast tracks are too far forward on most of them. This makes them hard to balance and the foot of the sail drags in the water a lot. The Vortex look the best of these three in that respect, and it looks like it has a Tuttle box which will be much better.

It will be interesting to hear your experiences with them. Hope it is fun!

They will be a tough ride for your feet too, zero padding! Ouch!