Just had an email from Smithers asking how progress on my board was going,
from this thread,
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=39216
this is my reply.


Yep, finished it about 3 weeks ago. at least one design criteria is OK, I can grovel it in 12kt.

But so far I haven't quite managed to crack 33kts on it, possibly because I haven't achieved optimum set up yet.
There's quite a lot of initial drag, before the cutouts clear the water, feels like there's weed on the fin. half way round a gybe, feels like the brakes go on suddenly.
I think this is because the cutouts are acting like a curved surface, sucking the board down, not too sure, but in strong winds, (that it was designed for), this drag phase doesn't last very long, but the slow down in the gybes is annoying, means it won't be a good alpha board.

Spoke to our resident guru yesterday, Phil (Bugs) Smith, of Avalon Sail Co, (should have done that before I started the project). He says I shouldn't have made a smooth transition between the cutouts and the chamfer, it should be a sudden sharp step. (a bit forward of my bottom hand in the photo below)
Because the smooth transition will direct water into the cutouts, increasing drag.

I've also spoken to slowboat, he doesn't like the feet being so high off the water, as riders weight doesn't have the same stabilising control over the fin, and he could have a point here, the board feels very flighty.
I'll sail it a bit more, adjusting footstrap and mast track positions, seeing how good I can get it, then maybe I'll do some mods.

Here's it finished.