Help in Identifying a Board

[noobie]

Hello, I am trying to help a friend of mine get information on a windsurfer that he has. I have taken two pictures of it with my digital camera. It bears the name Sailboard on both the sail and the board. It also has Designed by Brian Hinde on the right rear side and says 365A Master Class on the front of the board.
The mast has a sliding track that it sits in that can slide back and forth in. He has a clear orange fin that fits into the back underside. The board also has a slot in the centerline behind the mast that looks like it might accept another type of skeg or fin, but my friend has no idea what it was used for.
Any ideas on how I can find out more about this board??? It is in excellent condition with no damage to it at all (just needs a good cleaning from being stored in the garage all these years) The sail was replaced just before he put it up in storage and is in perfect condition.

Any ideas or help you can give us will be greatly appreciated. If you want me to send a copy of the photos to you, just E-mail me and Ill send them back to your E-mail address.

Thanks, Rico.

[oldsalt6600]

Why bother? It isnt worth anything.

[hilton08]

The make/model is whats printed on the board;
Sailboard Masterclass 365A. The 365 should be the length (in cm) which would make this a longboard suitable for beginners and light winds. The long narrow boards are pretty obsolete compared to newer designs, but they still work. The slot in the center of the board is for a centerboard/daggerboard. Im afraid the company went out of business before anyone knew what a website was so you arent likely to find much info on the board online. Maybe check with a veteran employee from Sailboard Warehouse in MN, I think they used to sell the brand. It isnt worth much, but people have been know to pay too much for old boards on ebay if they are in like new condition.

[steve1]

Wow I remember these.

Sailboard was one of the first European WS manufacturers. Goran Nieman imported them into the UK with some success.

What you have is what it says, Sailboard Master Class 365 (i.e. 3,65m or ~12ft old style long board). It probably dates from 1979-82.

In its day it was a reasonably competitive Division 1 (i.e. flat) long board. I raced against these on my trusty Sea Panthers and Sainval around 79 and 81.

The slot in the deck is where the dagger-board (or centerboard) goes, without which it is useless.

These days it could be OK as a beginner board, cruising around in light winds or even old-style tricks. Remember the “back-to-the-sail rail-ride” anybody

However, there is way better modern stuff for getting started.

Sadly its value is probably the cost of taking it to a landfill.

[coachg]

We have a couple of those at my school along with Bic Wings and an odd assortment of about 30 other old long boards. We have taken the fins out of most of them, as well as the centerboards, and let the kids play on them during summer camp. They are not very good boards to teach on-dont turn very well and they dont work with small kids rigs.

Coachg

[bigwebsailor]

Its like coach stated, if you cant put a kids rig on a board, it only can serve as an adult beginner board. That means that you have to find an adult dedicated enough to put together a rig and go for it. A twelve foot board serves a beginning heavy weight well. He can tack it. This makes light wind sailing fun for a season or two.

[coachg]

Try to get an adult to transport one of those big, heavy slabs. If you cant leave it on the beach like we can at a school, why would you want one?

Coachg

[Windlover]

As some have mentioned, it was a decent board in its day. Without the daggerboard though, it will be useless for learning to sail on. Dont throw it out though, it would make a conversational bench, a tobogan in the winter, a play float at the lake for the kids, etc. If you did happen to come across a daggerboard, you could actually use it for light wind days.

I remember those boards and actually sailed a few. They were from the days of Windsurfer, Bic Dufor Wing, Mistral Comp Club (precursor to the Light and Superlight), Whayler, etc. Ahhh, the good old days of waiting for a puff of wind so we could jump on our boards and cruise at 2-5kts. 10-15kts were days we dreamed about. Now it has to be 20+ just to think about going. But that is the benefit of living near the Gorge. It tends to spoil a guy.
But I do have an older longboard that I take to the local lake and sail light winds now and then. I even do the back-to-the-sail trick now and then. Rail rides are much harder than they used to be because Im out of practice. Freestyle back then was way different than now.

[forwards]

Brian Hinde, the designer of this series of boards, is the owner/designer of Open Ocean boards, shop in Lyle WA/Gorge, website www.openocean.com. He is a wealth of information on boards, and has a new masterclass 295 hanging in his shop, which Brian said was the largest production WS board ever, selling ~35,000... amazing. I owned a MC295 long ago, good transition board.

[steve1]

Yes we have definitely lost something along the way.

I remember when it was fun to sail in 5-15 mph winds (i.e. all year long).

That had the advantage of being when non-WSs were also on the beach/lake etc., so that more of the general public could see it, get excited by it and try it.

It was also more fun for non-WS members of the family/group - beaches are a lot more user friendly when the wind is less than 15MPH.

I guess this is where Kiting has the advantage (as long as they are not tearing up the beach with crash landings etc.).