Luderitz 2013 Board Design by Phil Carbon - The paint job

This is the final instalment for the production of the Luderitz board for Gautier Bourgeois. To follow will be some on the water feedback and an interview with the rider himself.

The final stages are to prepare the board for painting, then taking the paint back for a pro finish.

First the epoxy is sanded back

Filler is used to ensure there are no blemishes on painting

This is done on the deck and the bottom

Wet sanding ensures a perfect finish

The deck and the base are given their first layers

The paint is then sanded back for the Pro
finish

Graphics are put in place

Footstraps and non slip

The finished article.

I do hope you have enjoyed seeing all the stages of board production, please feel free to ask any questions either on here or direct to me through my website - http://www.phil-carbon.com/

Thank you for reading.

Phil Carbon 

Hot Sails GPS Tales - while waiting

As I announced in the post 'Looking Forward to 2012', Hot Sails Maui have invited me onto their team. The last couple of weeks have been busy as I have tried to sell off my reasonably new sails, 2 sold, and 2 nearly sold so I am now waiting for my Hot Sails Maui GPS slalom and speed sails to arrive. I have now ordered the 8m - 7.3m - 6.6m - 6m - 5.5m with just a 460 and 430 mast to get on with until I can afford a couple more.

Being the impatient type I have read just about every article I can find on the sails. The 2011 and 2012 versions are almost identical, the 2012 just has a couple of tweaks to the foot. I have been reliably informed that the sails are on their way so in the meantime here are some of the things I have found about the kit.

Wings Sails, an innovative design - by Stefano Basso

The following article was written by Stefano Basso of WingsSails. I contacted him after I had seen the innovative approach he uses to sail design. His sails look dramatically different to all others out there and it would be nice to see such a inventive approach succeed, which is why I asked him to write a bit about how he developed his ideas. Being a mathematician myself I have a great belief that nature and evolution already has the greatest ideas and I think Stefano's concept is one of the first true attempts to use nature as inspiration after the primary inventions of the sail and fin.               'The Bus'