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Sailing the Kona
By Tom Ingram (10th. April, 2006)
The Florida Windfest was a blast as usual, but the highlight for me this weekend was trying out all the new gear. We lucked out with strong gusty winds of 15-25 mph (sometimes more) on Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. The coolest board out was the Kona.
I tried it Saturday morning in light to moderate wind of 8-14 with a 6.8 (Cuben) Phantom, then again on Sunday in 20mph+ with an 8.0 Rapid Fire. In the light air, it is just narrow enough to move easily through the water in subplaning conditions, and doesn't have the aircraft carrier feel to it. I would say in general it reminded me of the old superlight in light air, but a little smaller. In getting up to a plane it gradually accelerates without a hard transition from nonplaning to planing. The big difference between the old school superlight type board and this is once it is planing it is pretty fast. I didn't get much planing on the 6.8 and didn't have it dialed, but on the second day with the 8.0 it was a blast - full tilt going downwind with the board coming completely out of the water in the chop, an experience not dissimilar to formula except without the "if I fall my equipment might explode" feeling. Also, sailing full blast on it was considerably less physical than formula, though obviously it is not quite as fast.
The duck tail acts as a "wheelie bar" - when the nose starts to fly up, the duck tail (normally out of the water) makes contact with the water and puts the board back down. It sails upwind with the centerboard up just fine in solid planing conditions, about 5-7 degrees less than a formula board but better than most other shortboards and much better than the old style raceboards. Perhaps best of all was the jibing. It carves a beautiful planing jibe, nice and long, like you might on a bottom turn on a surfing longboard. Everything about the board is comfortable.
Over the course of the last two days I saw people doing light wind cruising, light wind freestyling, teaching their kid how to windsurf, and full tilt blasting all on one board. There are better boards out there for each little set of conditions, but for somebody looking for one board, or for a board they can share with family and sail in light air up to heavy air and not make a major sacrifice in performance, this is a cool board. I am also hoping we can race it as a one design fleet once we get a few more boards out there.
Originally posted at http://www.aerotechsails.com/forum/showthread.php?t=850 |
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