Hi All,
Can someone give me the low down on Fish boards such as the Starboard's. I have heard they are good in onshore conditions but I have also heard that they are very slow and unpredictable?
Thanks
Gday, ive had a starboard fish 76 for the last 6 months. It can be a very frustrating board to sail, but ive had a few really good days on it too.
With the thrusters in they point really high, but are a fair bit slower than a normal waveboard. For onshore waveriding (backside) i think they are too slow to be much fun, but would probably help less experienced sailors get out through the break zone. They arent much of a jumping board either in my opinion, they just lack the speed and feel big in the air.
The conditions i enjoy sailing mine in is about 12-15 knots doing down the line waveriding in sideshore, sideoff or sideonshore winds. In these conditions, with a few quick pumps on the wave you can go from slogging to setting up for an aerial in less than ten metres. But as soon as it gets choppy, i dont have any control on my bottom turns, it becomes and absolute dog to sail.
So far ive only taken mine out in head high waves, but from what ive heard they can handle up to about logo high if the wind stays really light. I imagine the newer generation of shorter waveboards kill the starboard fish on all points of sailing apart from extreme light wind where the extra wide tail and fcs fins keep it up wind and planning.
Just a word of warning, i sailed one of the other brands of fish boards a few seasons ago and it had a distinct lack of vee through the tail. This made it awful on a wave in any conditons. Later on i talked to the shaper and he said it was designed more as an allround freerideish type board, so if your after something that works well on a wave make sure you have a look at the bottom!
i've just bought a starboard 95ltr version, so far so good - goes fast enough, turns ok, jumps ok - don't know about waves yet. Only complaint so far is spin out when you overload the sail - i've been told; that is because of the wide arse tail on them, also i don't have the thruster fins with mine
, if anyone knows where i can get some side fins from as the windsurf shops don't have em...........
The time to use the old fish style boards is when you aren't whacking the wave at max speed on your standard board - if you think about it thats alot of the time. The fish extra tail keeps driving whre the pulled in pin will give up.
This means in onshore the fish is gonna work great. - unless its super windy (20 knots plus) and the standard wave shape starts to do its thing.
Fish do jump well but the general rule of thumb is you want to be within the bottom 2/3rds of the sails wind range - when you are super powered the wide tail overdirves and it can be really hard to control (but super radical and explosive if you can harness the chaos)
Basically the fish do have a slow top end but you are comparitvely extremely fast when everyone else isnt even planing yet - and these fish do plane AMAZINGLY early.
The newer Evo style boards can be used as much more of an all rounder as they feature more rocker and less extreme width tails. I still think the old school fish are hard to beat in early planing and jumping criteria.
Dont worry about the sidies - they create extra drag and slow you down - stick with a nice single and you can't miss!
All the best - MAtt h.
hey matt, i've got a 24" kanga cock fin on the board... do you know if this was the fin that shipped with these boards?
That fin sounds like the right one. The 95 litre fish loves a 5.7 for ultimate balance.
