back in the late 80s I got hold of an experimental home made board, and soon after gave it away. It was about 15cm wide on a good day, maybe 180cm long, and 10cm thick. Bit like a thick water ski, never got it going (on the small lake in 15 knots and a 5.0 flat semi battened sail).
The skinnyest speedboard ever used in official speedtrails is the one that i own. It was shaped by Jimmy Lewis and was made for Erik Beale and it is 10 inch wide (25cm). I bought this board recently from him. As I am using a Ipad at this moment I can not upload a picture. I will upload some pictures later today.
Edit. I switched to a PC so here are the photos 
Jan when was the last time you used it?
Like a lot of people I am about 20kg heavier now than I was 20 years ago. What was possible then just ain't going to happen now :-))
That is the skinnyest board i have ever seen it would be nice if one of those dutch gurus would give it a blast with some video shots 4 us all 2 see it go? dose it have a nickname like banana or monkey meal !
I never used it, and I will never use it! I bought it as 'a work of art' and it will be displayed in my livingroom. I also own a 16 inch Jimmy Lewis speedboard that he made for Pascal Maka in 1986 and that was used by Pascal in Fuerteventura that year (were he broke the world record by beating crossbow) and I have a 1992 , 13 inch Jimmy Lewis speedboard that was made for Roddy Lewis.
B.t.w. Erik Beale concluded that with the 10 inch boards the max was reached. You need extremely constand conditions for a 10 inch needle. For a 500 meter run 11 inch and 12 inch boards were the better choice for him, and he was light! For a 2 second top speed the 10 inch might be faster, but we will never know....
great collection ! please post the pascal board was one of my faves as a kid ;-)
thanks for sharing
B.t.w.. The yellow board dous have a name. It's written underneath the laminate. The name is: Canal Plus MK.II
Have been away for some day's. Thats why I reply now.
When I bought this board, one month ago, I had a long talk with Erik Beale on the telephone. He told me that he used this board on the canal. I have no reason to doubt him.
Also the german surfmagazin wrote about the 1989 Masters speedtrails in Saint maries de la Mer sailed in march, were Erik did beat Pascal Maka in a direct face-of with a maximum speed of 74,31 km/h. in this magazine the board is featured, including pics.
Erik told me that he used more than one board during this competition. Sailing the 25 he found out that the board had a verry good topspeed, but the avarage speed was not that good. The extremely gusty wind in Saint marries de la Mer made it impossible to reach record speeds over 500 meter on the 25. When entering a lull the board slowed down to much. The 27cm and the 30cm boards had similar topspeeds as the 25, but they were better in gliding thru the lulls. The 30cm board proved to be the fastest board in these conditions.
I can not show you the speed done by this board because in those day's only the top speed of a competitor at the end of the speedweek counted, and was made public. In this case that was done on the 30cm board. In the mid 90's the rules changed. From then on the 2 best speed in every heat did count.
I have competed on the canal in 1990 and in 1991 myself and I know that in the rankings only the topspeed counted and they were publiched. My personal runs were handed to me on a small printout. Even if Erik has these printouts, I don't expect him to be able to tell you wich run he did on what board.
Andrew, I hope I have answered you questions to your likings.
Thank you Jan Cas. Great information and wonderful to hear more details of the performance and history of those boards.
Speedsurfing reminds me of how we would get things done in the old days!!
Every idea and development looks so good on paper
Hi all
Late '80's I had an 8'3" x 12" . Always a bit of a bugger when u have size 15 feet - it was about 8" at the front strap... I think mid 30's was about the best out of it. But then again it was the 80's...
Hi all
Late '80's I had an 8'3" x 12" . Always a bit of a bugger when u have size 15 feet - it was about 8" at the front strap... I think mid 30's was about the best out of it. But then again it was the 80's...
