A couple questions for folks with planing 10' windsups

saillizard · Joined: 11 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

My husband is shaping a 10' windsup that will be mostly for my use (nice!). He has extensive experience shaping sailboards and surfboards, but not windsups specifically. We have all the design elements nailed down except for the rocker line aft of the nose section. Some questions that have come up are the following:
1) how long is the flat part of the rocker? Ie, does it extend from the mast track to the rider's back foot or start of the "step" for those of you with Exocets, or is it shorter than that?
2) what is the actual tail rocker in inches? 2-3-ish?
3) it seems like the Exocets have mast tracks that are far forward. Do they work well in this position?
The design we're considering is a bit different than the Exocet 10' other than the length: 28" width, full nose & tapered fish tail with wingers, tri-fin configuration....for small Florida knee high days or slightly bigger high tide walls that aren't ideal for surfing; wind in the 8-12 MPH range. We're both lightweights and find the 30-32" width of many sups a little too much.
Thanks everyone for your input!

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5329 Location: East Bay

Most rocker's on slalom boards are flat from tail to less than 40" toward the mast base area. Any more, the middle of the board get's forced down and the mid sections pounds into the incoming chop.
Tail kick is for wave riding, or lifting the nose thru high chop. Most SUP/Windsurf boards don't need much, unless they're specifically made for wave riding in light wind conditions.
Mast track should be a 10" standard box, for some adjustability. Starting maybe 54" from the tail of the board. That is much farther forward than for slalom boards, but SUP needs are not top speed thru the water. If the track is too far back, the board doesn't plane well, using too much waterline on heavy wide board. If the track is too forwards, there is no room for the rider to tack around the sail, the nose sinking during tacks.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

It depends on what the board's emphasis will be on. My Sea Lion is all heavily rockered for turning on a dime, while glide and/or speed favor flatter hulls.

d0uglass · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 10:49 am Post subject:

Hi Saillizard- I added a step-tail to my 10'4 SUP to make it a planing windsup.

http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2014/01/step-tail-addition-to-sup-finished.html

I never measured the exact amount of rocker, but I know it's almost totally flat for about three feet in front of the step tail. If I was doing it again I might put a very subtle (like 2-3 mm) rocker in that section to make the turning looser.

-James

Awalkspoiled · Joined: 21 Sep 2013 Posts: 44

This may not be directly relevant, but my Kona CarbOne has ZERO rocker from the beginning of the true bottom surface to the front footstrap, and then only 5/8” to the middle of the track. Of course, the steppped tail makes the board much looser than a zero-rockered board would normally be. The height of that step is about 1 5/8”.

The board actually makes a very enjoyable SUP for up to waist-high surf, and is reasonably fast on flat water too, which is why I mention it. It’s outstanding in knee to waist high surf in light winds with a 7.5 sail. Probably rideable in much bigger conditions but I don’t trust the sliding track to survive a run through the rinse cycle. I agree with the note about a standard box for the mast, well reinforced.

saillizard · Joined: 11 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm definitely going with a standard mast track reinforced with divinycell. Attached is a drawing of the blank with a rough outline of the design in orange (the blank is 11' and the board is 10' with the last foot chopped off). I'm still debating the virtues of a totally flat 2-3 foot section vs incorporating a slight 2-3 mm rocker....might add a slight rocker in the fin area before the step.

windward1 · Joined: 18 Jun 2000 Posts: 1400

A lot of Sailing SUPs do NOT plane. I believe the ones that do are all very flat aft. It is the trade off of planing versus turning. If going for a ten foot Sailing SUP, I would opt for the planing as the turning is going to be longboard-like in any case.

saillizard · Joined: 11 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Yes, I'm definitely going for planing. The drawing shows an orange line in the profile view which will be the "planing flat" of the rocker (close to 3 ft). I'm hoping that the 2 + 1 fin arrangement, wingers, step tail w/decent kick, & some v in the bottom will provide turning ability.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

My 8'3" Sea Lion planes early, slashes at any angle in an instant WAY up on one rail/tail/fin if that's what I want at the moment (it usually is!), is great fun whether paddling around on flat water or waves or sailing in winds from 5 to 40 mph, is easy to carry for distances with one hand, goes to weather like no WSing board I've ridden, planes dead downwind in small or big swell, NEVER pearls, and fits inside my Subaru. That, to me, is excellent versatility. You might Google its shape and performance videos for ideas.

swchandler · Joined: 08 Nov 1993 Posts: 10588

I know the focus of this thread is about the rockerline of your new board, but I would like to float an out-of-the-box idea in today's scheme of things. Instead of the blunt rounded nose, why not go with a more classic pointed style nose. It's not like you need all that area in the nose to hang ten. Streamlining the nose will definitely cut down on wind and water resistance, and it would offer an arguably sleak and efficient nose outline.

In my last longboard surfboard I had made, I went a drawn-in pointed nose. The improvement in paddling was huge, because it cut through rougher water with ease and aplomb. If you look at all the longboard guns made for paddling-in at spots like Jaws and Mavericks, they all have drawn-in pointed noses.