I recently bought one of these boards to replace my 2008 Tabou Rocket 105. I've only sailed 2 sessions on it so far, but enough to give a good feel of it. I've been very happy with my Rocket, it's quite fast and a good all round board so I was really looking for more of the same, with a little more width for earlier planing.
I mostly sail flat water, smallish chop and occasionally venture into Port Phillip bay. I'm 90kgs, 193cm and mostly sail when it's between 15-30kts.
Board specs
- 100 litres
- Length 235cm
- Width 68.5cm
- Thickness 9.9cm
- Weight 7.4kg
I'll admit I was grabbed immediately by the looks in the shop and because it ticked all the boxes of what I was looking for, I bought it the next day without a test flight. The initial things that are striking about this board are the width compared to the volume, and then how thin it is - which explains where they cut down the volume.
It is a touch heavier than I expected it to be, possibly because of the extra surface area that needs to be covered in material, although much of the weight seems to be concentrated near the tail. It's constructed with carbon on top and wood below, which seems to account for some of the extra weight.
Enough of the off the water talk, how does it go?
First session:
Rigged it with a 6.7 no cam sail and 36cm fin because the wind looked light and headed out on a very choppy day at Inverloch, immediately getting smashed with a 30 knot squall. A bit rattled, I then changed for my 5.7 and 32cm fin and went out again to 18-23 knots and was much more in control, but the chop was brutal that day. I found the Atomiq doesn't bounce over the chop like my Rocket did, "floats" over the chop and the small rolling swell was good for a few small floaty chop hops. The short length meant I buried the nose in the water a few times so that will take a bit of getting used to. The GPS said 28 knots top speed which was reason for that day, given the conditions and me not wanting to smash up the new board on day one.
Second session:
17-23kts breeze at Sandy Point, so near perfect flat conditions. I rigged the 5.7 again with the 36 stock fin - hours of effortless sailing, while others there were sailing 6s and 7s in the same conditions, GPS numbers were very similar. the Atomiq really does what the marketing says - planes up like a board with 10-15 litres more volume, with the control of a lower volume. Even when hardly moving, the extra width makes it possible to turn the board around underfoot in a tack, when my Rocket would have been well under water.
Gybing this board is unbelievably easy compared to the Rocket - night and day - I can't say it enough, it's soooo easy to get a steady arc. I got my best alpha that day.
It's no slouch, in much stronger wind I've had the Rocket 105 up to 35kts, so I was quite pleasantly surprised when the Atomiq did 32.5kts without feeling even slightly out of control. More wind it would have gone faster easily, with a more speed oriented fin and a cammed sail who knows?
There's 3 positions for the straps in front and back, I put them in the middle positions and that seems quite comfortable, although at speed I think the outer straps would have been a better choice. I might move them in time.
It comes with a 36cm Drake fin in powerbox, which also factored into my choice - I didn't have to by a whole new set of fins. It's quite thin near the tip, which makes it flex a lot. On the first day I sailed it in steep punishing chop I used another G10 32cm fin in the board, which worked nicely for those conditions but I was determined to give the 36 Drake a fair go in better conditions the next time. I found it was enough to push against when pumping a little to get the board onto the plane in 15-17kts, without causing any railing up when the wind picked up to 22/23kts. The only time it felt a little squirrely was sailing very square to the wind putting a lot of pressure on the fin, it seemed to be pushing the nose upwind rather than in a straight line - it might have been something else or I imagined it
There's not much rocker between the mast track and the tail, with some small cut-outs to reduce the width of the tail. It has a "recommended" mast track position, however I've found with my 5.7 no cam sail, it pops onto the plane and goes faster with the mast centred about 2 cm back from there.
Conclusion
When I went looking for a board I wanted a board that is comfortable to sail, more than flat out performance oriented. My delusions of doing any flicky spinny stuff will probably never happen, but with the short length and round shape it has potential to do some of that too. So far it does everything my Rocket could do, but it planes earlier and gybes easier. It looks great too, even my wife told me "that's a sexy looking board, get that one"
Ninjury
> 9 months ago, 27 Apr 2015
