Well it got me thinking when i seen decrepits new custom speed board that he made himself whitch i must say looked very sweet how narrow have people gone ????
In WA over the last year they have gotten narrow to ridiculous levels
Some have been below 76cm's wide
Well back in the day when speed sailing hit the scene I think 12" or 13" was one of the smallest I saw, it was a Jump City custom from memory. Problem is with such small boards they never see much use and are hard to get going and are too narrow in most cases to really become unstuck and fly for most. As to wether they worked, well if you consider getting it on the plane I guess they worked. At the time if you could do a mid-high 30 on it would also give it "worked" cred'.
Things have changed a bit since and when you pull 34's on a 12'6" SUP, 37's on a 104L Quad and 41 on 75 wide 119L you know most boards these days work being a bit or alot wider. I'm sure a few other old salty's may enlighten us all with maybe some narrower ones they rode or seen in their time.
here's us at Sandy Pt a long time ago in an easterley on one of Byron M's old boards, think it was a 15 or 16". Seconds after that pic was taken the 'A' box in it split and let go ending in a good crash, was a nice ride but never had the conditions to give it a good hammering, then speed sailing died....
The smallest i had was a 14'',rolled the box and it was never the same after that. I think Mal had a 12", not sure if he ever rode it. It might still reside with Daffy.
the way i see it is the fin and straps are much further back now, i would say you dont need to have a needle its the way the board tracks, i would also say keep the rails nice an boxy and parallel, from my experience speed boards have to much volume for the width and can be like riding a log in chop at high speed, i would also say keep a bit of width in the nose for stability, and theres no reason you cant go 240 300 from the tail, have a look at my avitar and you will get the picture
all you need is a decent fin that works and you can trust at 40+
Nice work Spotty, Jump City was Ben Pridham. (please correct me if I'm wrong) He was based in lonsdale SA. He made some good boards for the time.
I think the smallest speed boards we've built are 42cm. They look pretty skinny. Fast though.
all you need is a decent fin that works and you can trust at 40+
Stroppo i have owned a F2 Missile small 63L x 48wide and now have a CASP50 they are both smillish and good for WA conditons. The CA50 is way better as its 81L so you get to use it a bit more over here.
I have have just picked up CA SP 40 for the 1 or 2 days a year we got 25+Knts. It's tiny so IMHO i dont think you need anything narrower that 40-44cm.
looks like you have to put the fin in before screwing in the back footstrap. What a clever design feature.....not!
will pull it out and take some photo's next week. do remember his boy ripping on it with a old 3.5 camspeed (the old ones with 8 battens and 5 cams on all sizes)
, im with you if your going to stick a strap over the screw hole, supply a strap with the board that you can access the screw, how dumb
Nice one Hammer ! what else you got hanging in the shed ?
I Remember Ben's speed boards but also remember that (here in SA) Shane O'Callaghan had some tiny speed boards, narrower than Ben's Jump City..
Mr Silly, lift your game
Disappointed you haven't got your board back Chris, must have been a real brain surgeon to flog that one
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It's not rocket science, on my Ca sp40 for my back screw I replaced it with a bolt and use a 1/4" drive socket wrench to change. Doesn't take any longer than a normal screw.
There isn't any smaller (production) speedboard on the market than the sp40. Lots of other brands have, just like CA, a 44 cm wide board with double straps at the back - however, i'm not sure if that is possible to have on the sp40 due to its narrow tail?
But as Chris said it's not a problem. I actually have both the CA sp40 and the Mistral speed 41 and the trick is to open up the actual footstrap, not unscrew the strap, open up the the footstrap, then you're able to put the fin in the box afterwards just simply close the strap again.
In the picture CA sp47 and the Mistral Speed 47
I also have the ca 40 and have no complaints with the fin bolt issues,the time you take to screw in the strap is offset by the time you save not having to screw in an air plug.
Using double straps on the 40 (for me at least) Is not really an option as you will find your heel dragging.In addition,in my opinion, you can get away with a smaller fin as the load (torque) is less with the foot over the fin and not against it,thus less drag.Designed for sailing downwind! Just wish i can use it more often
Here I am worrying about converting a dual strap to a ingle rear strap . Having size 14 feet doesn't give me alot of room up the back. I would get both heel and toe drag !
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The first board to break the 40 knot barrier over 500 meters was a 11" wide Mudshark shaped by Jimmy Lewis, back in November 1988. Erik Beale was the rider and always had the narrowest boards but 11" was his smallest.
