carbon art 44 speed and 50 slalom board review

carbon art 44 and 50- speed /slalom boards.

I had actually planned to post this earlier but got side tracked, so in light of Chris Lockwood's speed runs yesterday at sandy point on both of these boards I figured the time was right to post again.
You can also find Chris's comments here-
p.s when you read his comments keep in mind his board is an 'off the shelf'production board :0
www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=user&val=12617&uid=203

I had the opportunity on Monday arvo, the 11 September, to try out both of these boards and was suitably impressed. Enough (as a Mr Joe average sailor) to feel the need to write a small review on both of them. I should also mention at this point that I have no ties what-so-ever with Carbon Art, so I hope you will take this on board as an independent review.

The boards were kindly lent to me by fellow sea breeze forumite - 'slowboat' (Chris l). Chris had only taken delivery of them a couple of days earlier so this was his/mine first real test of both the boards.

First sail was the 44. Chris convinced me to grab the 65ltr, 44cm board with a 6.6 ka koncept sail. I thought he was joking because there was only perhaps 15kn of wind with lulls to 10kn and even lower. The graphs showed this was about right with 1 decent gust to 18kn but all in all I was fully planing in 15kn.

This is basically a dedicated speed board, the dimensions I think were- length? not sure, Width -44cm and a volume of 65ltrs. The plan shape has probably the most impact on the eye. It is a very straight sided board that starts with a rounded nose, similar to a missile, that then leads straight into parallel rails that start to taper from the front foot straps back to a fairly traditional pin tail at the back end. The rail shapes are boxy with a sharp release edge, which with the aid of the straightish outline, make it VERY!! :) Easy to sail back up-wind after a broad run - (very handy for speed sailing :))). The bottom shape looks very clean with a bit of flat rocker forward which helps to get the board up and planing early and a fairly pronounced vee for most of the length of the board just starting to taper off in front of the fin box which gives the board awesome control.

For me the vee was the thing I liked the most. I could bare off in a gust and knife through chop better than any non-wave board I can remember ever sailing. The gybing potential is awesome - you can pretty much crank it as hard as you want at any speed and it will hold in and turn clean. This is where its flattish rocker up forward really helps in keeping speed through the turn, thus making a so-so gybe a fast one as long as you keep your weight forward.
This will with out doubt be a serious threat on any speed course and will provide more than enough competition to the rest of the speed fleet.(chris's top speed was 48.3kn!!!)

The 50 is basically a slightly larger version of the 44 and its dimensions are - length- not sure, width- 50cm and volume 83ltrs.
This board handles similar to the 44 but obviously has a lot more float and the capability to coast through lulls with more ease. This board is a full floater for me and was very easy to tack even in the 10kn conditions. I currently own a 100ltr board, which I would normally use in these light conditions but after sailing the 50 (83ltrs) I am sure I would be better off with this board instead.

I am not sure how you can get these boards at this stage, maybe 'slow boat' can shed some light on this or you can visit the carbon art web site for more details. What I do know is these are not a Thailand produced board. They're actually made in the eastern states......sorry... New Zealand. They are a full carbon construction with, according to their web site, very exacting tolerances being adhered to during construction. The other interesting feature of the boards is a lack of a vent plug! At least a vent plug, as we know it. It has a 'Goretex' vent, which means the board can breathe with the change of temperatures as normal, but will repel water so you never have to worry about screwing a dodgy plug in and out of the board again! A small, but ingenious idea none the less.
i have since gone and 'put my money were my mouth is'and ordered a 44 :)))))

In addition to Chris's comments you can view pics of the 2 boards here-
http://50knots.xs4all.nl/gps%2Dspeedsurfing/media/AU/Miscellaneous/index.html and also visit the carbon art web site.

full model specs are now up on the web site.

hello TelecomGreg,
i used to have a naish hybrid 89 and it was also a great board, how ever apart from the rounded nose and pin (relative) style tail, thats where the similarities ended. i now have my carbon 44 but unfortunately i crashed and cracked a coulple of ribs a couple of days before taking posession of the new weapon, and as murphys law would have it i have missed several good breezes since waiting for the bloody ribs to heel :(((