Tencate tendon

I don't know where you'd get Tencate bits from - Google might be your friend even there.
However, I think perhaps you should have sought a little advice before buying an old Tencate for a learner. Best of luck.

Thanks for the information. It didn't cost a lot and we can always use it as a paddle board if I have no luck. Dinsdale can you suggest an alternative unit for a teenage starter? Here are a photo of another unit that has already been pulled apart after breaking.

Try ebay, theres actually a tencate mast foot on it now....

Whether a Spacer will be good for a beginner depends on where you sail.

If you sail in many places - maybe Westlakes in Adelaide or in Sydney - for example, longboards are often the best way to go. We often sail in light wind locations where even a Spacer would normally go faster on a typical weekend than a Formula board. We need good low-speed upwind capability because you have little room to pick up speed. We don't need the same sort of sideways stability because we don't have waves.

When we've used widestyle beginner boards etc for learners at our clubs they almost always end up on the leeward shore because beginners with small sails aren't a great combination with small centreboards. That doesn't happen with longboards, which are better at going upwind in light winds.

As an example of how inefficient shortboards can be around Sydney or similar places, we find that a less experienced kid with a 4.5m on a One Design is about 4m quicker around a course, than the kids who do the Techno nationals and use a Techno 7.8.

Last time I sailed in Melbourne, for the North Sails "1 hour", all the beginner widestyles (borrowed by fast sailors due to light winds) were 70% of the speed of a Windsurfer One Design because there was only about 6-8 knbts of wind. The Spacer is about as quick as a One Design in such conditions, so it can offer things a widestyle beginner's board can't.

Sure, for real beginners speed is not the only measure, but it's one way of showing the differences.

Of course, in other conditions the Techno, Formula, or widestyle boards can be much better. A wide board IS better in other ways - but not for everyone and everywhere.

Widestyle boards are fantastic to learn on in WA or windy open waters, but they have major problems in other places.

I would love to see a photo of the board. I think that may have ben the first board I ever bought new (about 1985)

this is an old one design board that i fitted a tyronsea deck plate to, also have done a board with mast track like in above picture, one long screw in centre of track (removed one that was there) and one on each side of track through alluminium.

You can fit a standard (modern day) uni by making a rectangular plate to fit inside the mast track and tapping a hole in the bottom to suit the stud on the uni deck plate. It is just like scaling up the regtangular nut that comes with the deck plate. I have the same uni as Wineman but the board is a TC Runner (KI Pro Am!) and this is how I would upgrade it.

First board I ever owned, managed to learn on that with a NP RAF 4.7 sail. Still may have the original unused 6m triangular sail that came with it but threw out the rest a long time ago.

Mine used to have a white plastic mastbase that was meant to slide in the track but sometimes would pop out instead. Got used to pushing it back in while out on the water.

Agree. If we replace our tendon every season (or so ), then definitely replace as any method above that 26 year old attachment.