Sailing the Kona

[Tom Ingram]

The Florida Windfest was a blast as usual, but the highlight for me this weekend was trying out all the new gear. We lucked out with strong gusty winds of 15-25mph (sometimes more) on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. The coolest board out was the Kona. I tried it Saturday morning in light to moderate wind of 8-14 with a 6.8 (Cuben) Phantom, then again on Sunday in 20mph+ with an 8.0 Rapid Fire. In the light air, it is just narrow enough to move easily through the water in subplaning conditions, and doesn't have the aircraft carrier feel to it. I would say in general it reminded me of the old superlight in light air, but a little smaller. In getting up to a plane it gradually accelerates without a hard transition from nonplaning to planing. The big difference between the old school superlight type board and this is once it is planing it is pretty fast. I didn't get much planing on the 6.8 and didn't have it dialed, but on the second day with the 8.0 it was a blast - full tilt going downwind with the board coming completely out of the water in the chop, an experience not dissimilar to formula except without the "if I fall my equipment might explode" feeling. Also, sailing full blast on it was considerably less physical than formula, though obviously it is not quite as fast. The duck tail acts as a "wheelie bar" - when the nose starts to fly up, the duck tail (normally out of the water) makes contact with the water and puts the board back down. It sails upwind with the centerboard up just fine in solid planing conditions, about 5-7 degrees less than a formula board but better than most other shortboards and much better than the old style raceboards. Perhaps best of all was the jibing. It carves a beautiful planing jibe, nice and long, like you might on a bottom turn on a surfing longboard. Everything about the board is comfortable.

Over the course of the last two days I saw people doing light wind cruising, light wind freestyling, teaching their kid how to windsurf, and full tilt blasting all on one board. There are better boards out there for each little set of conditions, but for somebody looking for one board, or for a board they can share with family and sail in light air up to heavy air and not make a major sacrifice in performance, this is a cool board. I am also hoping we can race it as a one design fleet once we get a few more boards out there.

why did the rs-x get the olympic spot again?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[Del Carpenter]

I hope the Kona is a wonderful success. I hope it helps bring back open class long board course racing, but not as a one-design class.

Tom,

Unlike Del (sorry Del) I find the idea of One Design racing the Kona to be an interesting one. Especially after seeing the most recent photos posted on the Exo-site.

What is your thinking, if any, regarding the OD package, specificaly the rig(s) and fin(s)? How about including a loooong paddle for the stand-up paddleing that Wardog is suggesting, then we could eliminate wind minimums altogether and always garrantee the Race Organizers and Racers a fun event.

Just a thought.

Ray

[Steve]

Do to the overwhelming postive response to the Kona a one design concept is in the works more details to follow shortly.

[Tom Ingram]

Ray -

I do have some thoughts on the Kona as a one design:

I would try to make the Kona something akin to a Hobie 16 class - fast and thrilling but not experimental, and something you can use to teach your friends on. Right now we basically only have a formula class, which is more like an Aussie 18 skiff - it is no wonder they aren't exactly wildly popular. I like formula and think some version of it will be around for a long time to come, but it is not the best racing class for new windsurfing racers, intermediate level windsurfers, or casual racers. I am not sure what the sailboat equivalent of the RSX class is - maybe the Finn class?

Limited one design on the rigs and fins. For example, I would suggest that there be a class sail and a class fin, but that some flexibility would be allowed for people to sail a smaller sized sail or fin, so that if you have a board but not the class sail and want to try racing, or if you are getting overpowered on the class sail and want to keep racing, you can still race without having to buy a second, smaller class legal sail or a second, smaller class fin. So, for example, have a class legal sail of 8.5 and allow any other sail 7.5 and under. Even if this isn't part of the official class rules I suspect we would end up doing that in Florida. I would also strongly suggest something similar to the Rapidfire 8.0 as the one design sail - that sail worked well on the board for me in 20 knots and I don't see why it wouldn't be just fine in subplaning conditions. Having a 2 or 3 cam sail will help the light air performance without making it overly complicated. Also, I think the look of the sail will be very important. It has got to have some color, maybe something like translucent yellow grid around the perimeter with a blue luff sleeve, and Pentex in the middle. The sails of the fleet need to show up in pictures and be distinct from others on the water.

Class fins. Having sailed the board with a Select 56 something-or-other freeride fin, I thought the fin was fine for planing conditions and quite fast considering the size of the board. The fins available on the market generally fall into two camps: production fins around US $125-175 and custom fins at US $350-400. We formula racers have found that the combinations of rake, stiffness, twist, length, profile, and chord make a significant difference in sailing performance. It is cool to engage in the continuous quest for the perfect fin but I don't want to be doing that on a soft-top board with flowers on it - I just want to screw a fin in with the fat portion going towards the front and go. I think that sort of equipment race will discourage newer racers even if the performance difference between custom fins and other fins is not that much. Again, I would suggest something like a class legal fin of 56cm and an allowance for any other fin 50cm in length or under.

Allow adjustable outhauls but not adjustable downhauls. I really like the lack of a mast track - the design works well without it. Time has shown that adjustable outhauls make a big performance difference and would help reduce the amount of pumping. They are pretty simple to operate once set up. I think an adjustable downhaul is overkill.

Score lightweights separate from the heavyweights. If I were in charge that would be the only two classes I had - let the sport fleet, A fleet, B fleet, women, grand masters, etc. all race together. The culture of "everybody gets a trophy" needs to go. People who run in races or compete in triathlons don't worry overly much about not getting a trophy. I would much rather have one big fleet and help out the newer folks like during the brief heyday of IMCO.

Allow flexibility on the courses. There has been a fair amount of debate on the beach at Merritt Island about whether a reaching course is more attractive to casual racers. I think with a longer board and centerboard like this that it lends itself to windward leewards - especially since it is pretty quick to tack and accelerate. However, the board reaches very nicely, and it would be fun to mix it up some. The slalom style starts are a lot harder than they look.

Allow for revisions to the board, sail, and fin but post a best-estimate schedule as to when the soonest would be that a revised version would be available. For example, I'd suggest a new sail design in 4 years, a new fin in 3, and the possibility for a new board in 7 years. Durability-related improvements that didn't change the shape would be excluded from this.

Wow,
Very good, don't lose that post. And please I'm serious about the paddle thing, IMO it would really open the door to recreational family style racing/sailing weekends.
Ray

Anybody done any light-air wave sailing with the Kona?

George

Yes, see Steve's earlier post "KONA my first ride". Also see http://www.exocet-original.com/kona-...g/index_en.asp