Have had the JP49 Speed board for about two months and finally had the chance to test it out. Please note that I have never sailed a speed board before, so my comments will be more from a recreational point of view.

The board is well finished and very very light, comes with a 26cm fin, and I set the foot straps from holes 2-3 (front and back) as the normal setting is too small.

I'm 92KG and currently use Isonic94 and RSS Mark3's (7.0/6.2).

Our runs at Golden beach in a Northerly are about 900m long with room for a 200m broad reach through 10-40cm chop as the speed run. This makes it difficult to get a good 10 second time as you are having to slow down to turn back upwind at the end.

At first I went out on I94/7.0/35cm SL9, wind was 16-22knots at a guess, which is very consistant for Golden Beach. There are usually always a few dead spots on the run, caused from the northern buildings, so stop/start is quite normal, sorry I mean sink/start.

The I94/7.0 was runnig at consistant 33.4 10 second times on the GPS. So thought it was a good opportunity to try the JP. I wasn't sure if the JP49 would take a 7m ( website says it can) so decided to rig the 6.2 instead for the 1st try.

1st run was on JP49/6.2 RSSM3 and Caspar 29.

I'm sure I starred at it for 5 minutes wondering wether or not to purchase a snorkel!

Anyway thought what the hell and jumped on. Unbelievably it jumped straight onto the plane, didn't round up in the process and off I went. The foot strap placements are the same as the Isonics basically so getting in the straps was easy for me. The 1st thing i noticed was the boom felt oddly high, so dropped it 1cm after the 1st run.

The ride was super smooth and I could sail around at angles not to dissimilar to the isonic. On the run back I went for a broad reach and hit 34.4 for 10 seconds. Although I felt under powered it seemed to keep planing extremely well, must be the slightly different rocker compared to a slalom board.

The JP's speed on a reach was superior to the slalom board, and it felt just too easy. The nose sits low, and doesn't move around when going through chop.

Not sure what else I can say about it, will try to gybe it next time. The 7.0m should work fine also, but will have to let you know later. I'm very pleased with it and for such a small board, if the winds consistant, it can be sailed in moderate winds quite easily!

Thought I should throw my two-bobs worth into the mix, I have ridden both the 54 and 49 speed boards and IMHO, must say that they are really comfortable boards to sail, the 54 especially, it feels like a really tidy, not necessarily tiny, slalom board - gybes well and stays under control. Surprisingly, I think it would suit open ocean sailing, such as the Ledge/Lano. At no time did I fear that I was going to spear over the front, the rails released the water really nicely. I felt that using a slightly bigger fin than you would expect for this size board really got it smokin'. The strap position and deck contour make for nice comfortable position and further contributes to confidence when in the chop. Build quality seems to be great.

cheers

i tried the 49 turned very well,on the day before my dads mate put his knee though it,managed to fix it for the next day.

Had 2 sessions on the JP49 recently. The 1st was with a RSS M3 7.0. Given the gusty conditions I think the board handled the sail size well. Perhaps a little on the large side, however I believe it certainly enabled me to plane in a lot less wind. I was using a 29 caspar, and cant see why a 31 couldn't be used.

The other session was on the 6.2 RSS M3, again with the 29 caspar as the water state was quite choppy. The wind was a solid 20-25, and this is the best session I have had so far. IN this wind range with this sail, it really lights up, giving you a glimpse of the possibilities in flat water with a few more knots. Cant wait to try a 5.5 on it, with a 23-25 fin.

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MattL said...

Thought I should throw my two-bobs worth into the mix, I have ridden both the 54 and 49 speed boards and IMHO, must say that they are really comfortable boards to sail, the 54 especially, it feels like a really tidy, not necessarily tiny, slalom board - gybes well and stays under control. Surprisingly, I think it would suit open ocean sailing, such as the Ledge/Lano. At no time did I fear that I was going to spear over the front, the rails released the water really nicely. I felt that using a slightly bigger fin than you would expect for this size board really got it smokin'. The strap position and deck contour make for nice comfortable position and further contributes to confidence when in the chop. Build quality seems to be great.

cheers

+1 to that.
Did get the impression that the Ca's work better for actual speed sailing though...