Introduced in the NEW ultra wave boards 2023 24 Starboard
--For progressing wave sailors, a lower mast foot position helps advancing wave sailors balance their weight more forward, maintaining momentum easier and getting to the lip with more speed--
What do you think ? for sure it adds control

It was only a matter of time . I can see no good coming from it .

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Snapfigure said..
Introduced in the NEW ultra wave boards 2023 24 Starboard
--For progressing wave sailors, a lower mast foot position helps advancing wave sailors balance their weight more forward, maintaining momentum easier and getting to the lip with more speed--
What do you think ? for sure it adds control

It's important to understand what the idea is here. A lower mast foot brings the leverage point lower but no more. It won't do any of the things you've added there.
What does 'balance their weight more forward' actually mean?
If you actually want your weight more forward then lean forwards, or move your front footstraps forwards and shift the mast foot back a touch in the track.
The wave board itself is a good shape.

@basher
actually i ve added what starboard claims on their webpage
there is a theory behind this .I dont know if its correct or not
we ve tried it few times with good first impression IOO but not sure yet if its good or just marketing Needs a lot more testing

Hey snapfig - have you come across any reviews hyper ? mag tests ? .... interested in that crazy narrow tail

Hyper Test

"une forte epaisseur sur l'axe central" meaning "remarkable thickness along the center line of the board"

So for the chosen volume distribution, the sunk mast rail might be a tactic to bring the mastrail height to "normal" proportions rather then a lower one compared to average measurements ..ensuring a "normal" feel rather then anything new/beyond?

It is half-purple, so it must be good anyways

The mast base might be low but not the price...3000 Euro for a wave board!!!

I'd be impressed if they figured out how to make it last more than a season.

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Grantmac said..
I'd be impressed if they figured out how to make it last more than a season.

Me too.

@snapfig - thanks info ... you are a reliable sleuth ...

It'll also effectively lower the clew eyelet height increasing boom angle.

Also, we sail more upright than slalom guys and our sails are cut much higher.

That said, I wonder how different it is to have a lower mast track, versus mast foot (they vary in height) versus running 0cm sail pulley to mast base pulley.

On my old sail I actually leave like 4cm maybe more at the foot to bring the sail up since it's cut so low.

Sunken mast tracks and especially these new super short mast tracks are total BS!

They are an example of regressive development that is sold by pure Hype.

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sailquik said..
Sunken mast tracks and especially these new super short mast tracks are total BS!

They are an example of regressive development that is sold by pure Hype.

They are good for short arsses who ride slalomboards with sails that have a high boomcutout.

Regardless, I have the 83 in wood and 93 in carbon.
Love the boards.

There must be a reason why the custom board builders also included sunken mast tracks when they did not need to. The extra effort to shape and sand and skin the sunken areas must have been offset by a performance advantage. For them it obviously resulted from input by their team riders. I'm thinking of Mike's Lab formula boards.

Upon further thoughts I wonder if this would let them add volume without the board feeling too "corky" which is definitely a factor on bigger waveboards.
Can't imagine it matters under 100L though.

There is a reason you might want to have a sunken mast track - it because the lower track vs the deck will cause a change in the deck shape, which will affect the stiffness... which is something you may want... or not.

But the cut-out style of sunken track, just makes the deck plate harder to insert (and as already noted harder to build).

I'd like to think that some testing went into things at Starboard, like they may have built a board exactly the same with the mast track at the usual height, then one with it sunken and got back some results of how it performed, what was better, did it plane earlier, turn higher, etc. They are pretty renowned for their testing R&D work.

Hard to sell new boards if nothing changes

I've been doing that on my small narrow speed boards for years.
But only because I want as much volume as possible, but don't want the rig to have any more tipping leverage over the board.
So in my case it's for buoyancy and control.

I can understand that Decrepit ,
I'm thinking it will make the board sit down lower on the wave and make the rail engage better
,if you think going the other way having a fat board with a high foam area around the base it would have less mast base pressure and feel floaty ,and bounce ,having less rail pressure
It seems to work on my 2022 isonic it keeps the nose down,well it feels that way and seems more controllable ,making it feel like a smaller board .
just my thoughts .

Guys , we're talking half an inch here . If you had two exact same boards , one with the mast base half an inch lower , I'd go hee for tiggy if any of us could tell the difference.
Possibly on a big slalom board with a scooped deck which lowers the base over an inch ???
Possibly on a small speed board on super flat water ???
Id think in this case , it's chasing a marketing trend. A few years ago I saw a Goya wave board and it had cutouts about the size of half a 20 cent coin. That was just for looks. Even so , you could hardly see them without glasses.

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Imax1 said..
Guys , we're talking half an inch here . If you had two exact same boards , one with the mast base half an inch lower , I'd go hee for tiggy if any of us could tell the difference.
Possibly on a big slalom board with a scooped deck which lowers the base over an inch ???
Possibly on a small speed board on super flat water ???
Id think in this case , it's chasing a marketing trend. A few years ago I saw a Goya wave board and it had cutouts about the size of half a 20 cent coin. That was just for looks. Even so , you could hardly see them without glasses.

Can you feel the difference in half an inch of boom height? I'm curious more than anything. I can definitely feel the difference. Whether it matters on the mast base being attached half an inch lower is a completely different story.

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aeroegnr said..

Imax1 said..
Guys , we're talking half an inch here . If you had two exact same boards , one with the mast base half an inch lower , I'd go hee for tiggy if any of us could tell the difference.
Possibly on a big slalom board with a scooped deck which lowers the base over an inch ???
Possibly on a small speed board on super flat water ???
Id think in this case , it's chasing a marketing trend. A few years ago I saw a Goya wave board and it had cutouts about the size of half a 20 cent coin. That was just for looks. Even so , you could hardly see them without glasses.

Can you feel the difference in half an inch of boom height? I'm curious more than anything. I can definitely feel the difference. Whether it matters on the mast base being attached half an inch lower is a completely different story.

I could feel one-inch boom difference. Half, probably not so much. It would be more a mental thing if anything. If I were to raise the boom half an inch to compensate a half inch lower base, I don't think I could tell. I would think you would feel way more difference in foot pads or straps than half an inch mast base.

Still believe?

Still to the bottom