Kona Carbone - Your Experience?

[gvogelsang]

Kona Carbone riders, I am interested in your experience with the board.

How often do you ride it?

Does it plane fairly early? Compared to a Formula Board?

Please chime in.

[Awalkspoiled]

I picked up a lightly used Carbone this spring and apart from an old Windsurfer One Design it’s now my only board. Most of my sailing nowadays is on Sarasota Bay and on small ponds in Massachusetts, in winds 12-20. I’m 230lb and have been sailing since 1979 on everything from an Efferding 7’10” to an AHD Eliminator. What with one health issue or another I’m no longer a very aggressive or athletic sailor, and like to hook in and cruise rather than pumping myself around. I like wavesailing in head-high or less but haven’t taken this board out into surf yet.

The Carbone doesn’t plane as early as a formula board, won’t point as high on its fin, won’t drive as far off the wind in moderate air, and although the daggerboard is excellent it won’t get to the windward mark as fast if the Formula board is planing. It won’t beat a real hard-railed courseboard to the mark either. It’s also significantly heavier than the 26lb spec and the daggerboard takes some fussing before working properly. I wish the box were a tuttle not PB. As far as I can tell from a dozen sessions that’s ALL that’s wrong with it.

It DOES plane earlier than a Kona One, much earlier than the Kona Hula which I tried to love for most of the year, and earlier too than any of the other 9’ 8" hybrid boards I’ve tried. It points very well on its fin, even with a weed-blade. I haven’t yet acquired a maxed-out pointer which would probably just be something like a 56 given the powerbox and the relatively narrow tail. The mast track works very very well and once it’s been tweaked a little so does the daggerboard (I sanded down the sides of mine a little, and use Sailkote for easier movement). The footstrap inserts are very well placed even for a heavyweight (I have my front straps forward and my back straps in the middle inserts). The big track pedal and the daggerboard head make for cramped quarters when pooching around so for real beginners the Kona One is better.

The board is FAST on a reach - really fast, and really easy to ride. It steps up onto its false tail and skips along. The feeling is slippery and like a much lighter and shorter board - riding very high in the water and showing much less tendency to stick in chop than harder railed raceboards sometimes do. The downside of the soft rails forward and gentle rockerline is that it doesn’t really roll over onto its leeward rail when on a daggerboard upwind, but you can ooch it over and then hang out similar to what you could do on an IMCO. If you’re in full planing conditions you’ll probably be close-reaching on the fin anyway since it really does point well, just not like a formula. Jibing on a plane is fun, fast and easy - easier than on many dedicated slalom boards in fact, and WAY easier than on a Formula - and it carries good speed out of the jibe with normal slalom-board technique.

I’ve had it out with a 5.6 briefly, an 8.5 and a 10.0 and for me it’s happiest on the 8.5 which I’ll sail in up to 20. It was exciting on the 5.6 in a gale but obviously it’s not the board you’d pick for those conditions if you had a choice. I’d love to find an old softish 7.5 for light-air wavesailing - not jumping but waveriding. It’s much, much handier to sail in subplaning conditions than any old-school raceboard which makes me think it would be fun in small surf. I do worry about the masttrack’s durability in a crash though.

What else? It’s a really enjoyable SUP - which most longboards aren’t - stable considering its narrow width, tracks pretty well, turns decently, reasonably fast. Not as fast as my 12’6 by 30” SUP but so close that I’ve sold the SUP. The construction seems to be very solid indeed - no dings so far, no softening of the deck areas. So far, given my preference for a one-board quiver, it’s making me really happy. The price at retail is insane (would be fair enough if it really were as light as it says it is though) but if you can find one well-priced it’ll do everything you expect.

[gvogelsang]

Wow - great review!

Thanks!

[jingebritsen]

if the kona one is the jack of all trades, yet master of none, what does that mean concerning the carbone?

kona one on steroids.

[gvogelsang]

awalkspoiled,

Which 8.5 do you use on your Carb One?

Also, is your user name a reference to golf - a good walk spoiled?

Thanks,
Greg

[Awalkspoiled]

I’m using an 8.5 Ezzy Cheetah - not sure exactly what vintage since I picked it up used also, but I think it’s a 2013. I’d prefer something with cams in that size but budget is tight so... The Ezzy is very well made I must say - I’d always used Sailworks until a few years ago but most of that quiver is toast by now.

My 10.0 is a 3 cam Mauisails Titan Proto but has the wide luff sleeve of the Titan GTX. Compared with current formula sails that Mauisails is somewhat less shapely down low and I wonder how a deeper drafted big sail might work on this board. The Mauisails will tolerate an awful ot of wind when fully downhauled/outhauled. My current 7.5 is an aging Infinity and I wish to heaven I still had my old Sailworks Race 7.5 which would be magic on the Carbone I bet. I’ve had the Infinity out on the Carbone in 20 gusting 30 and it was fast but twitchy. Might have had to do with the 490 mast I crammed in there - I think it may like a 460 better.

One nice thing about the Carbone is you pass a lot of people without getting the pants scared off you the way you might on a Formula board, so a real heavyweight like me can get away with an awful lot of sail and won’t have to back off if the fin’s any good. Next on the program is a better fin quiver - unfortunately I just whiffed on a 54 TA Sweeper on ebay.

Awalkspoiled is indeed from golf - I’m an avid but aging relative newcomer to the sport and play to around an 8.5.

[gvogelsang]

8.5 is solid. That's about what I would be these days, but the Golf Handicap Tracker has me at 7.4, primarily because I rarely play at over 6,000 yards!

I was on an 8.5 Retro yesterday on my Formula board in marginal stuff. Planing for a while, and then it went too marginal. The Retro is a lovely sail, but I think that my old Pryde V8 might have a bit more low end grunt for my passive planing style. I hope to try a friend's Lyon at some point.

[jingebritsen]

RAF sails offer more torque/weight than cam sails. they also are better in the corners. require more tuning to wind changes, and will top out and over power sooner. despite these cons, i prefer them in all winds.

cam sails need less attn to down haul settings, plus or minus 2 cm, are super smooth in all but the corners (weight, and slamming sail transitions). in order to keep the batten tips from breaking, they do need to be down hauled the right amount.

double luffs? ugh.