Board weight importance

There was a discussion on some boards and this popped up as a response:

A friend just bought a Nano 130 l and it is about 2 kg heavier than
a S/Cross of the same volume. Also he does not go any faster on it than his old board. Weight is very important

How important is really a difference between a let's say 10.5kg board and 9kg board?
Is 1.5kg worth $1000 difference in price?

High board weight is very important in 40knots when all the featherweights are getting blown off the water.

Ask Rider5

Boards magazine July 08 did an article on identical boards of different contructions to try and analyse the difference, in summary there was no noticable difference unless you like the psychological advantage of being on a full carbon instead of base model epoxy board (and don't mind spending the extra $$), the biggest difference found was with two mistral screamer 116s with 1.34kg of weight difference. Worth a read. Funnily tho the 2 JP RWW 74s tested only had 0.23 kg difference. Hardly worth making two different models with that weight difference.

Thanks for this article. Just finished reading. Quite an eye opener, and has definitely answered my question.

jh i believe the pro edition supa light isn't glassed on the bottom , if it's true look after it cos a very light board from the shop can be a very heavy board with water

i know a guy that had his wave board custom sprayed and added 1/2kg and killed it

Select to expand quote

jh2703 said...

Hey keith...er Keef, how has the sailing been down at Sanctuary point. I've been down a few times to catch the odd southerly and no one has been out...has the rain scared you all away.

..

hi jason you ACT guys will sail anything ill send you a pm with my n/o , ive been busy making a board for green island speed week but pulled the pin at the last minute
i was in WSS when Sam's new pro edition 54 slalom arrived and he weighed it at 4.9kgs and told me they keep the weight down by not glassing the bottom well me being the gullible dude i am believed him because i know you don't have to glass divinicell if you don't want too, and after makeing this last board with mainly 98gram carbon i'm thinking to my self, why in the f..k wouldnt you glass the bottom it would be lighter glassed, you got me on that one SAM next time ill read the spec's before i open my mouth,

The weight of the board, rig and rider combined (how is the water going to know the difference between them?) has to be important...volume is all about water displacement (Archimedes' bathtub), and if there is less weight, the board won't sink as low and displace as much water...and will need less wind power to get up and out and stop displacing water altogether.

We call this planing, for those who haven't picked up on it yet...

Which is why my light b@$tard friends can plane on 7m and 110 litres while I slog on 8.5 and 161 litres...f### 'em...


I could be wrong...



Hey Windwarning, what up son? How're those Viccy beaches? I heard you got some hot beaches down there son, word is born...

I have always found the lighter the better in light and stronger winds. In the light I figure once the board planing most of the weight of the rig and sailor are being supported by the sail, not so for the board. Any extra weight will raise the point of the board planing though surface area plays a big part.

Once the wind gets up a bit a lighter board is just nicer to throw around, rolls and fowards are much harder on a heavy board as the board tends to get pulled off your feet. This holds true till you hit over the 30 knots, then a heavier board can be a bonus in chop, easier to hold in the water, and doesn't get blown away when your trying to waterstart.

OK, got it now...

I wonder if that's a good analogy or not. The lighter a board is the freer it is follow the bumps. If you watch the nose of your board while sailing you will notice it bobs around like crazy, so terrain following is obviously what it wants to do. The implication is that a heavier board, in resisting that kind of movement, may be slowing it down. On the other hand additional weight may be more of an inertial stabiliser and that may be a good thing. I think the only thing you can say for sure about weight is that more overall weight requires more lift to hold it up but then 2 kgs of board weight is not much in a 100 kg all up package.

There is a rule of thumb that says any difference of less than 10% can not be reliably detected by the seat of the pants. So when board testers say they can't tell the difference this doesn't mean a lot.

I'd say that if you want to throw your board around a lot (waves or freestyle) then less weight is certainly better, no doubt about it. But if you are just blasting about over chop or smooth water the advantage of light weight is moot. Actually you would expect to get a small but real advantage in speed sailing when every tenth of a knot counts.

Beat me to it.

What percentage of the rider and rig's weight is supported by the lift in the sail?
Any takers? I'm going to guess at times all of it, thus board weight will become important again - 10% less weight in the board = 10% less weight overall.

But what about the law of inertia + extra weight in lulls?

P.S. My first answer still holds, most of us can have much more fun with $1000 than by losing 1kg off of our board weight.

sorry to disagree evlpanda , it's like any sport you reach your ability and then it's up to the equipment, would you do the tour de france on a$500 mountain bike