Veloce was very balanced.
Owned Vivace and Energy, a bit faster and MUCH better to jibe.
Had a dog Preister Built, my Hypertech faster, livelier, and jiber way more precise.
Delta Speed was carrying the hard rail concept just beyond my abilities, I owned a couple.
Sputnik 265 one of the best all around boards for SF Bay and 150 lbs rider.
Gary Pettit made some really good boards.
Berky's a bit too blocky for my weight, conditions, and likes. 104 and 89.
Harold Iggy 8'8" built by Rick, one of my favorite boards, but left on Oahu in 1993.
Old housemate Boggy Built made me a great 8'2" x 19" at 10.2 lbs with pads and lite straps.
Had one of Matt P's 8'10" x 22"sq railed 9 lbs slalom boards made by Z. Too harsh for me.
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Wow sounds like you need to upgrade to a M_Oz Customs
Freight might be the killer huh
Ahh the ol Veloce. Ive got a 288 120litre. Great when its choppy. Just as fast as the newer boards. But after sailing newer designs it does feel Loooooong.
At the club I hang out at, they've chopped the nose off of dozens of boards, as have I, and they all sail exactly the same.
The culprit is weight. Stock is long but lightweight.
Chopped is 25cm shorter, but slightly heavier
There is no "windage" problem.
LeeD, please explain how 25cm shorter is heavier than stocko board. Are you using lead to reshape the nose? Surely the reshaped nose with a few layers of glass would be lighter than original?
Surely you are mistaken!
Seems easy, just chop the nose and lay up some glass.
Try it. Gotta seal it, you know.
Maybe If you vacuum bag.
Chop off the nose, even 12". It weighs almost nothing.
The resin batch you mix and the first layer of cloth weighs almost the same
Then add hot coat, seal coat, sand it and paint it...are you sure it,s completely waterproof?
Nothing to do with vacuum bagging.
Like decrepit said, match what was there. I think a lot of people bog the hell out of it instead of shaping foam.
I
Lee if they're coming out heavier after a nose chop - and enough to feel it - somethings not being done right.
Mine, I weigh the chopped off nose.
Then weigh resin, glass, approximate paint, and sealer, and come out losing the battle.
Worse, the chopped board does not feel better. Feels dead with no glide.
Select to expand quotemr love said..
Actions not words. Mark has my MB59 design and is free to glean whatever he wishes from it if it helps him.
to show that there is no simple set of rules....here is the fat needle rev G which is obviously quite different to martins.
yup.
it started out as a speed board but got a volume redistribution. the brief was a speed board that could handle chop so a speed slalom was born.
i never got to do V2 where i would ha e focused on the rails more so it's unfinished work for me.
the version above did just over 40 knots at green island. from memory i think wind was under 30 knots. considering you southerners think our 30 knots is only 20 knots thats not bad.. 
from memory mid to high 30s in the bay in 20-25 knot seabreeze.
I think open ocean demands thinner rails, more tuck in front of feet, much deeper V with possibly Rocket bottom [Tabou], and shorter length of flat from tail.
Lee, I agree with more tuck, but have you noticed the bottom is angled up at the rails, this may have a similar effect.
My last two small boards, have had thick rails to try and maintain volume. This isn't a problem once planning, but rather than make it easier to get going, it's actually made it harder in light conditions. The thick rails have too much effect on the position of lateral resistance, making the board want to turn upwind. I have to get the sail a long way forward to stop this, or really sink the tail, in the depths we sail in, this is not an option. So If I make another small board it will have close to wave board rails.
the issue with to much tuck is it is draggy. that said slightly softer upfront is what i would do next time.
rail volume is linked to lenght x width x thickness for a given volume. increase any of those dinensions and the rails can thin further.
i spent a lot of time on the rail volume. the chine was used to reduce edge volume without losing overal volume and to stop rail from tripping
whilst the rails are boxy in context the board is thin so its all proportional really. im not a fan of thick boards which is what wave boards do to keep the volume up and retain thin rails for carving.
personally because im heavy id rather a little extra width.
as a side note a lot of contemporary designs have hard tucks. look at freestyle boards. its a somewhat old mindset to link hard rails with a lack of manouvreability.
whats for sure is reducing length means boxy rails or loss of volume or more width to maintain volune or go thicker. the combination is endless.
the only way to know is to build 2 boards and do A B comparisons.
Select to expand quoteGestalt said..
the only way to know is to build 2 boards and do A B comparisons.
Yep and in all sorts of conditions with different riders of different weights and skills.
Select to expand quoteolskool said..LeeD said..
G-10 only keeps it's top performance for around 50 days for me, at 155 lbs. I'd think a top pro finding a great fin would save it for big races and only use it for a few runs monthly for comparison purposes.
Please explain??? It softens with use??
They do not. For a regular sailor a G10 fin lasts years. If you are a competitor at a very (very!) high level you are always looking for an edge of few seconds over a slalom course. Then trying out/changing fins is sort of mandatory.
Select to expand quoteLeeD said..
Maybe If you vacuum bag.
Chop off the nose, even 12". It weighs almost nothing.
The resin batch you mix and the first layer of cloth weighs almost the same
Then add hot coat, seal coat, sand it and paint it...are you sure it,s completely waterproof?
Come on LeeD, everything would end up heavier if you do it wrong. Of course if you cover the cut off in resin and put on layers upon layers of glass eventually it will end up heavier than the original ... what sort of discussion is this?
As far as chopping the nose off a board to gain something ... it is very questionable. Shorter than the uber-long 1990 early 2000 slalom boards are not just cut off versions of those! And in general modern slalom/freerace boards are very much easier and safer to use!
Select to expand quoteGestalt said..
as a side note a lot of contemporary designs have hard tucks. look at freestyle boards. its a somewhat old mindset to link hard rails with a lack of manouvreability.
Definitely agree there. Plenty of waveboards have tuck with a hard rail to about 3/4 of length from tail.
Surfboards, still clinging to "must have soft up front" Soft in, square out. Blah blah.
I made a couple of kiteboards with a modern windsurf waveboard rail, lots of tuck but hard edge to about 12-18" from the nose .....and told by kiters and surfers it wont work.
Turns just as good as any surfboard, but holds an edge better for a start.
Bit like convincing them about no stringers haha. We will get there.....
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..Gestalt said..
the only way to know is to build 2 boards and do A B comparisons.
Yep and in all sorts of conditions with different riders of different weights and skills.
yup.
Yes dredge but question to Mark of his final design and maybe slightly heavier and durable construction.
Have you build and rode it yet?
Its not for me.
Almost finished, 97L, biaxial carbon, 5kg bare.
Should be fast and very controllable with a nice gybe. I figure an alpha board is better than a GPS / speed when we're talking slalom and open water downwind racing like the LOC.
We will see.
