So how should you use this report?
Here’s your step-by-step guide:
Step 1 - Look at page 50 and determine which type of windsurfer most nearly resembles you. Most windsurfers fall into one category, but those who sail in wide range of conditions can fit more than one.
Step 2 - Once you’ve found your category (page 50), read the accompanying discussion of the boards and sails that suit sailors in this category. Make note of products that sound good for you.
Step 3 - Check the content pages for boards (page 53) and sails (page 67) to locate your selections. Read the reviews to help you get a better idea of which products suit you best.
Step 4 - At this point you should have a short list of prospects. If you live in an ideal world (i.e., the Gorge, San Francisco, or at least near a good windsurfing shop), your next step is to demo the products. Failing that, go to a windsurfing resort in the Caribbean or Hawaii, and see about trying gear out there. If your world is less than perfect, with no demo opportunities, it may come down to a coin toss. Take satisfaction in the fact that you’ve improved your odds.

How To Read The Reviews:
These board and sail reviews don’t follow a set format. We find that doing so leads to endless repetition, and that key features, the qualities that set one product apart from others, tend to get lost in a dense thicket of verbiage. So, instead of covering the same territory with each review, we try to focus on the qualities that struck as most significant. In one board, for example, it may be the construction that’s most noteworthy, in another it may be the controllable ride that earns praise. In each case we tailored the review to the product in an effort to give you the most important information in as few words as possible.

It’s also important for you to realize that we don’t pull our punches. Only rarely do we find a product that doesn’t suit any of our testers, but when it happens we tell the story like it is. No doubt there are sailors who can like the boards and sails that our testers don’t care for, but we’re guessing they’re as rare as hens’ teeth. In any case, there’s no need to look for hidden meanings and messages in these or any review. The sense of tester opinion is spelled out clearly in the lines, not between them.

How To Read The Numbers:
Accompanying each review is a set of measurements and ratings that should help you understand each product’s strengths and weaknesses. Here are explanations of each.

Boards:
Power Rating - The length of a board tells us practically nothing these days. Volume tells us how much weight a board can carry when it’s not planing. Width tells something about how much weight a board can carry when it’s planing; but rocker, vee, tail width and tuck are also important. Therefore, we’ve come up with something we call a Power Rating - an objective formula based on board measurements - to provide a better, though not perfect, indication of how much weight and sail power any given board can carry. In our summary table of board measurements in the magazine on page 72-73, we present the boards according to their power rating. This is the best way we know of ensuring that boards most similar in sail–carrying capacity are listed near each other.

Measured Length - There are three different ways of measuring board length. We measure them all using one method.

Measured Volume - It’s rare nowadays to find boards far off the manufacturers indicated volume. Major discrepancies tend to be in the five- to ten-percent range rather than the 15% to 20% that occurred on occasion in past years. Still, since knowing the true volume of a board is important to many readers, we conducted board volume measurements using a load cell sensor that has proven consistently accurate to within a percent or two.

Width - Maximum board width.

Weight - Dry weight measured with deck pads (when installed) but no straps or fin.

Planing* - Quickness to plane. An indication of how readily a board will get a 250-pound sailor planing

Reaching* - Speed on a reach. Boards are surprisingly similar in top speed these days, but this rating indicates a board’s speed through a range of sea and wind conditions.

Upwind* - Upwind speed. You don’t have to be a racer to want to get upwind.

Tight Turn* - This rating indicates how easily a board can perform a small–radius turn.

Wide turn* - An indication of a board’s ability to perform a smooth, fast, controllable wide-radius turn.

Ding Rating - Windsurfers who are rough on their gear or who sail at rocky launch sites should consider getting a board that receives a high ding rating. To perform the ding test we dropped a round, 200-gram weight on the bottom of an upsidedown board in a spot opposite the mast foot. We started by dropping the weight from a height of just two inches and increased the height for subsequent drops until the weight started making small but unmistakable dents in the board’s skin. The height at which this occurred is the ding rating.

Sails:
Size Tested - Some sails were tested in more than one size. However measurements are taken from the specific sail size indicated.

Price - Suggested retail price.

Mast - Length and IMCS rating for recommended mast.

Max Boom - The maximum boom length required for the size tested.

Weight - Dry sail weight.

Durability - The durability rating is a rough indication of whether a sail is built for super-hard use in surf or more typical use in chop and flat water. A=Bomb proof.

Downhaul Ease - This rating indicates the amount of force required to downhaul a sail. Sails with built-in tack pulleys and those with little inherent downhaul tension, score highest. Sails with tack grommets are the hardest to downhaul and tend to score the lowest. Granted, these sails can be downhauled with tack pulleys, but they cost money, time and trouble and therefore make downhauling more difficult.

Rigging Ease* - A wave sail doesn’t get an automatic “10” in rigging ease these days. If the mast doesn’t slide easily into the sleeve. If the hex key for tensioning the battens isn’t built into the sail. If the head cap is particularly troublesome, we then rate the sail less than ideal.

Speed* - A rough indication of a sail’s ability to go fast in a range of wind strengths and points of sail.

Power*- An indication of how readily a sail will pull the non-pumping rider onto a plane.

Stability* - The tendency of a sail’s center of effort to remain in one place through gusts and lulls.

Water Start* - A sail’s luff sleeve, overall weight and tip weight determine whether it is difficult to waterstart. Testers were divided over whether cams make a sail more or less difficult to waterstart.

Rotation* - This rating indicates the ease with which the luff sleeve of a sail rotates onto a new tack. While cambered sails tend to score lower on this than camless, the latter doesn’t automatically score a “10.” Some sails have so much luff curve, batten tips can get stuck on the wrong tack until the sail is pumped.

Luffability* - Luffability has to do with the ease with which a sail can be carried to the water on a windy day, and once on the water, how easily it can be held in a neutral position, producing no power. Not even all wave sails are equal in this regard.

*When there is a 1 to 10 rating, 10 is best.

Contact American Windsurfer to find out about joining us at upcoming tests.