Boards, Sails... It's all too exciting!

Hey, I know there's lots of exclamation marks in this sad effort, but hey, I'm an exclamatory guy. So live with it, I have to.

Now, boards. I should ideally hang in for a good used board, but I'd buy new if I had to expedite things. Sails? Well, new is probably better, unless one knows the degree of use etc. Monofilm is tricky stuff after a couple of years of UV exposure, and if I intend to use them in salt water, other people will have too.

Boards... I like the new "scaled up short board" or the "wider style freeride" jobbies. Lots of examples around - Starboard Carve, JP XCite Ride, F2 Stoke. What size? Well, I'm 65kg, so in principle a 100 litre board would be enough IF I was a good sailor. I've used 130-125 litre boards in Dahab, and they were ok - the width is probably the most critical factor in respect of a board being relatively relaxed to sail for those of amateur footwork capability. I guess a conservative choice would be 125 litre, which will get me going in lighter winds and provide lots of confidence. Might want to trade it up (i.e. down in size) in future, or just keep it and buy something smaller! Hmm, but I COULD just go with 100 litres and make it work...

As far as sails go, everybody needs a quiver i.e. more than one, just to cater for the kind of wind range in the UK. In Dahab one might get away with a couple of small sails, but in the UK... to get planing in lighter winds requires more area of canvas (ok, plastic).

The sensible money is on a one-make, proportional quiver e.g. 15% increase/decrease in sail area between adjacent sails. For example, 15% based on a max sail size of 7.5 sq m gives 3.9, 4.6, 5.4, 6.4, 7.5. Cool huh? Just pick the max from the board manufacturer's instructions, and do your sums. Of course, a sail range that has a wider range of wind strength applicability per sail allows for a smaller number of sails for the same wind range... so the notional 7.5 max list above becomes 3.8, 4.8, 6.0, 7.5 for a 20% difference. Which is only 4 sails!!

Ah, the choices! Can't wait.