Hi all,

By now you may or may not have heard rumors regarding F2 international.
Please read below for the official press release from F2 international.



Please note: Windgenuity Sailboard is still supporting F2 windsurfing. And will back up the F2 brand 100% as per previous years. This action by F2 international will not effect F2 in Australia in any way for the up coming seasons.

Kind regards,

JB

All F2 products sold in Australia will have a full 12 month warranty as per usual, this will be fully supported by Windgenuity Sailboards as mentioned in my initial post. So anyone thinking of purchasing an F2 Product or that have already purchased an F2 product, feel safe that all the usual warranty and services are still valid.

As for all the legal stuff (I'm not really into that side of the sport), the F2 international importers meeting is being held on the second week of June, and I am sure we will know after this.

Regards,

JB

I am not sure about the laws back in 1988, but I know now that as the importer of F2 in Australia we are legally obligated to provide a 12 month warranty on any product we import. This is in no way connected with F2 international. Anything on that side of warranty or servicing issues will be between Windgenuity and F2 international.

As I said above, any one who purchases an F2 product imported by Windgenuity will have the full 12 months warranty honored.

BTW, F2 is continuing as a company, and are still producing boards, they have not gone, they are just taking means to get back on their feet. We have faith in the brand and the people behind it.

JB

If there was a manufacturing problem with a board, would Cobra International be party liable for the production and help honour a warranty claim? not only for F2 which i hope will pull though this, but for every other board company they produce boards for? i would think if they didn't help out, it would be bad business.

If there was a manufacturing problem with a board, would Cobra International be party liable for the production and help honour a warranty claim? not only for F2 which i hope will pull though this, but for every other board company they produce boards for? i would think if they didn't help out, it would be bad business.

That's big no in regards to Cobra having any responsibility to the end customer. Cobra actually used to make boards under their own brand. Some people might still remember them. They used to have deck which entirely covered with soft foam. Great shapes for the time but some had build quality issues. A friend of mine went through about 4 in a season... all ended up with a cracked fin box. Still he loved the board so much he kept getting news despite the fact the shop tried to give him an F2 or Fanatic at no additional cost.

I am not sure what F2 is selling these days but about 12 or so years ago I used to help out in shop in southern Germany where we shift at least 350 to 400 boards a season. The wholesale discount on those numbers was ridiculous ... for example we would buy a board for about $490 and sell them for $1200. The discounts would usually be in the 30 - 45% range. The other thing was that they would provide us with the gear in March but wouldn't send invoices until September. I am sure that's different these days.

In a nutshell it would be sad to see F2 disappear. I have had some great F2 boards over the years... original Sunset Slalom, Sunset Slalom II, Revolution.

F2's situation is looking very positive, I think it is todays society that automatically look at all the negetives in any situation. I believe F2 will be around for many years to come. F2 is huge in Europe, and F2 snowboarding is equally as big in Europe. The Australian market has grown massively in the last 3-4 years. Big brands always seem to be able to stick around through hard times!

Good faith to you F2,

Regards,

JB

It is sad to see F2 in this situation. I sort of came back into windsurfing last year from around a 9 year break. In that time the whole board making industry has changed.

Many new names such as Starboard, Tabou and Thommen are now dominant brands. The older brands such as Mistral, Bic and F2 seem to be out of the limelight. Then I learned that almost all new boards are made in one factory in Thailand. Thats completely different to the old days when boards were made all over the place.

This new manufacturing regime is quite strange. Its would be difficult to imaging Ford, Holden, Toyota and Mercedes Benz making all of their cars in the same factory. However if they were I imagine the company with the lowest overheads, highest sales and best designs would be the winning brands.

Clearly there are cost and quality factors which seemed to have lead most companies to abandon their own manufacturing processes and workers in favour of subcontracting it all out to Cobra.

Personally I do not think its healthy for the industry in the long term for one company to be making most production boards.

greenleader said...

cobra is totally answerable to it's product steggles!

you have no idea and are living in the past.

Let's see who has no idea... if by your theory Cobra would liable for warranty claims by individuals (the end customer) then by definition Foxconn and not Apple would be sued for all those faulty iPod batteries.

The only situation where Cobra would be liable in regards to the end customer would be in the case where their product causes death or injury due to negligence on their part. This rarely applies to consumer products though and mostly if found in the airline industry.

A little reality check here... probably more than 95% of companies get their consumer products made somewhere in Asia by a third party.

sure... but if the supplier goes bankrupt the supply chain is broken and I am pretty sure the distributor / importer has little hope of getting the factory to warrant any claims. Especially if they are the only once one the market manufacturing this particular product.

It would of course be an interesting test case...

For anyone interested, here is Cobras' web site:
www.cobrainter.com/

JB said...

Windgenuity is going to take that risk. As I said things aren't as bad as people are making out. This sort of thing happens to a lot of major companies.

Rover / Land Rover, Porsche to name a couple, have had massive restructures and new owners, sometimes even more than once, and they are still going strong!

F2 is not a major company compared to those you quoted. Jaguar/Land Rover have just been sold for over a billion dollars whereas Porsche has been owned by the Porsche family since its inception, you can't compare F2 with them...not even the same league!

The banks called in the note on F2 and installed a trustee to oversee the company while they sort out the debts. It will be interesting if the owner of F2 steps up and provides the necessary funding to keep it going. The press release didn't even get their name right, it's the Sir Francis Heath foundation.

When your dealing with companies that turnover a billion or so the banks are reluctant to step in as the potential loss is too great, they tend to loan more money in the hope the company can trade out of the situation. When you're talking a few million the banks are happy to be rid of the problem, take the loss and shut down the company. With the current credit squeeze this may well be the likely scenario.

Mark _australia said...


From Cobra's website:


help to bring new followers to our great sport of Windsurfing, the mother of all funsports.


Take that, kiters

Thats fair enough, any noob can get a plank and saw off the ends and screw a couple of footstraps onto it. Making a decent board takes real skilz.

bc said...

I have been sailing f2 for more than twenty years and i cant remember the last time we had a faulty board !!!!!

you've got to be kidding me

talk to some guys in cairns and they'l ltell you all about them.

Troppo said...

bc said...

I have been sailing f2 for more than twenty years and i cant remember the last time we had a faulty board !!!!!

you've got to be kidding me

talk to some guys in cairns and they'l ltell you all about them.

maybe its just a memory thing?

Stewie said...

I think all the F2 Wave 256's were faulty, in the late 90's. If the fin box didnt crack, and the footstrap plugs didn't pull out and you didn't crack the bottom by chop jumping it, then you were doing really well.

Stewie,
Any goss on the maui wave project - say 85litres and aroung circa 2002 (I think). Just checking as this one only comes out in the big blows and my personal life insurance doesn't cover me for swimming more than ten metres.

I had a Ride 277 which was a fantastic board, but split along the seam.

That was pretty common for the F2 boards about 8 years ago, many of them split along the seam between the top and the bottom.

Hi sausage.

I dont know much about F2 boards after the Wave 256 debarcle.

I know of a Maui Project breaking easily, but I have seen many others that were fine. The Maui Project was constructed very differently(better) to the Wave 256.