Hi - I'm keen to get views on two of Starboard's recent boards - the Carve and Futura. The Carve is 121L 251cm by 72.5cm. The Futura is 117L 231cm by 77.5cm. A mate tells they perform very differently. I'm keen to get views on the pros and cons of each board to see if The feedback is consistent. I'm a 80kg immediate sailer, in the harness and straps, fully blasting, jibing well most of the time, water starting etc. Sails are 6.5, 7.5 and 8.6 - sailing generally in flat/chop with gusty conditions up to 25 knots, but most enjoyably under 12 to 20. Thanks.
Both will be great boards for conditions you described, but I guess it really depends on two things, (1) What type of sailing style you want (2) What type of sails you have.
The Carve is a "plug in and play" freeride board. Easy jibing, smooth on chop and pretty fast on flat water. Best with freeride sails.
The Futura is a Freerace board, basically a de-tuned iSonic. Easier than a full on slalom board, but still able to give high levels of performance. Best with either freerace sails or slalom sails.
If its mainly choppy at your beach, the Carve will be more forgiving. If you trying to improve gybing, the Carve will be more forgiving too. If you want to go fast and race your mates, the Futura will be more fun/faster.
Just my 2 cents worth :)
Haven't sailed a late model Futura but can say my 121 2015 Carve is good in chop and faster than it looks
I have the newer carve 121 and its a great board maybe a tad slower than the older narrower carve, I think it deals with rougher water better than the older shape and also gybes really nicely. I have not sailed the newer Futura only the older ones but they are popular in TAS. The acceleration is one of the bigger differences I notice so if you are slow into the footstraps you may have problems, but these are a lot easier to sail than the Isonics.
I think the carve 121 is 75.5 wide.
The carve will likely be nicer off the plane too, it's interesting sailing longer boards again as there are definitely some advantages
