I sent him an email asking if the sails have camber inducers in them, and I hope to get a response.
Thank you so much for telling me that i will still be able to plane in 20-30cm of chop. That is reassuring. The type of chop that we have on Whiskeytown Lake is disorganized and lumpy. Very rarely are there straight lines.
When you talk about 20-30cm of chop, is that because you think that I will need winds between 20-30knots to use this board? Or 20-30 knots to get on plane, controllably?
I think that no matter what rig I get, that I am learning a lot, and I plan to practice at uphauling first, and then progressing to water-starting. I do not know enough about water starts or beach starts to be able to hold an intelligent conversation on those topics.
Planing depends on sails, and sorry I forget how that relates to early 90s sails, But you should be planning in 15kts, probably a bit less. I wouldn't try 30kts until you have quite a lot of experience under your belt. I'd say 18 to 20knts will be the most comfortable, again depending on those sails. If the biggest is over 6m>2 the 15kts should be fine, 5m>2 should be good around 20kts, an 4m>2 around 30kts.
Be aware that in high winds, board and rig can drift downwind faster than you can swim. If you have a disconnect, board will drift faster downwind than you can swim in moderate winds. Modern unijoints have integrated safety ropes/webbing to keep rig attached to board if the uni breaks. Older ones didn't! First thing to check, probably best to renew the rubber, it's probably perished by now.
@Decrepit thank you. Knowing that I can plane in 15-30kt winds is a big plus. I was concerned about trying to learn in moderate to high winds, for some of the reasons you just mentioned.
The seller just responded to my email: "I did not know sails were designed for specific boards and I do not know any models of sails. I do not know what camber inducers are; as I said, I was self-taught and never sailed that much. I would guess no camber inducers as I do not think they were available in the 90s."
Thoughts?
Camber inducers were certainly around in the 90s, but I wasn't speed sailing then I only ever had wave sails in that era. So I'm not sure when camber inducers were introduced to the mass market. If they have them, there's the possibility of just removing them, some early "cross over sails" had camber inducers that were designed to be removed when you didn't want them.
Camber inducers are also more complicated to rig, you either have to thread the mast up through them, or "snap" them on at a later stage.
So if they were there, he'd probably know about it.
So did you get sizes from him? That will determine your planning range
I had a 4m Gaastra from that era my uncle gave as Christmas present. I was so excited as thought it be great as had the US111 on so assume was Pete Cabrinha. Anyway this had small plastic cams. They could be rigged without but the luff tube was huge, must have been 200-250mm wide. Thi filled with so much water that made it almost impossible to uphaul. I was only in stages of just in straps and would have only been 12-13 but I remember found a newer 5.8 so much easier to up haul than the 4.0m
I got an email from someone offering to sell some equipment, but they were asking substantially more for it. I had high hopes it was in better condition. NOPE!!!
He was only available after dark. (all the better to ensure I could not see the gear) All the pictures I took show nothing but darkness. Maybe the sails showed up on camera in my flashlight.
The 2 boards were ABS plastic boards from the mid-1980's. The sails, masts, and booms, were all from similar vintage. A lot of it had been stored outside, probably for years. One board was semi-suitable for learning, a plastic "Mistral Super Light" that must have weighed about 50lbs. No fin or centerboard. He wanted $200 LOL
All the booms were the tie-on style. All the universals were strange mechanical nuts-and-bolts style wood and metal devices that I had never seen before.
One of the sails looked to be from the late-1970's. Orange and Yellow. Anyone need a vintage sail? hahahaahaa
A Mistral Superlight in good condition is one of the better choices among vintage boards. Shame that it's waterlogged. However, if it's missing the springy fin or mast foot, they can be expensive to remedy or source.
Yeah, I've seen too many adverts of boards that have been out in the sun for 15 yrs and somehow the owner thinks it's worth something. As much as I hate FB in general, there seem to be less crappy boards listed in the windsurfing for sale groups. FB Marketplace, however, is as bad as CL and eBay generally are. You may want to also visit the beaches where real windsurfers are and strike up conversations. A lot of us have gear in the garage that we'd happily let go to someone on the cheap or know where the better used stuff is. Plus, real windsurfers have a vested interest in you learning rather than seeing you as a sucker to foist bad gear on. Some of the harshest comments about used gear is on those windsurfing groups I mentioned above where people will call out the poster for over priced or crappy gear.
Good luck!
He actually had the springy fin, but it was broken. I told him I have a plastic welder (a $19 kit I bought off ebay) and would try to fix it. He gave me the whole springy fin, mount and all, even though I told him I probably wouldn't buy the board. I'm gonna try to fix it. Maybe I can use it for another board. Seems like quite a useful design!
I actually got a contact from another fellow looking to give away some windsurfiung equipment that he says is on some property he owns that is "extremely hard to access in the Sierra Nevada Mountains" I'm not sure what this entails, but it sounds like an adventure.
Wow what an adventure. The house was up a jeep trail with a 20% grade, that was around 6ft (2m) wide. Lost a little paint to all the undergrowth there. That place is a SEVERE firetrap. It's as overgrown as the 16,000person town of Paradise that burned in one hour. I made sure not to drag the hot exhaust system over any plants. And I got out of there as fast as reasonable!!!
He gave me two boards, and a bunch of sails and other gear I haven't even unpacked yet.
Board #1: Unknown BIC Board, but based on pictures from several websites, I believe it to be one of these: Mabye a BIC BEBOP (1986-89) with 377 cm x 68 cm, but 20 kilos and 230 liters, maybe a BIC Bamba (1989-1993?) 240 liters and 370 x 65 cm, or maybe a BIC Samba 320 (early 90's) 320x64 cm 170 liters.
Board #2: An extremely light and thin board with no daggerboard, that says only "Designed By Chuck Simms Delta Speed".
Mast #1: Steel or aluminum.
Mast #2: Looks like it goes with the Delta Speed board-----looks like it is made of carbon fiber.
I got the info on BIC boards from this website: joewindsurfer.blogspot.com/2017/07/bic-windsurf-boards.html
