Roberts Boards - Opinions?

[boardsurfr]

[mamero]

[grantmac017]

I guess it depends on what you want out of the board and what you consider to be your minimum wind speed. Are you willing to slog 90% of the time just to blast a bit, or do you want to consistently make miles?
Without a doubt if you want to make miles in light wind then a raceboard is going to make that happen the most reliably.

I disagree that it's as fun as planing on a shortboard, but it's a lot of fun racing and way more fun than slogging a shortboard.

[combs]

All of Rob's modern boards are customs now, so it depends on what the original owner had in mind. I've had rob make a board for me and have bought two second hand Roberts boards. All are top quality, very strong, and very fast.

[swchandler]

Regarding Roberts boards, I would suggest contacting Sailworks and talking with Bruce Peterson or Dale Cook. Both of them have been riding Roberts boards for many years. Bruce, in particular, has a lot experience racing Roberts' formula boards in the Gorge.

[isobars]

Roberts are premiere boards, but as Grant says, what counts most is a board's purpose. I wouldn't pay ten dollars for the world's best Formula board for surf sailing, for example, and I have paid ten dollars for some phenomenal Gorge boards I'd gladly have paid a thousand for if necessary.

Which of these would I rather drive on the highway ... this ...


or this?



Tough call, given that either would get me arrested.

[alap]

for me personally, the biggest advantage of Formula was that it helped me to master my light air pivot jibe, and this had a two fold benefit into shortboard area.

Firstly, the light air pivot jibe on the shortboard with small sail -it is totally identical technique (with smaller margin for an error than on Formula)

Secondly - the flip and handwork (throw, throw, pull, grab) is identical in both light air and real carve jibe. Throwing 8.5 on Formula requires more precision and flip lasts noticeably longer of course, but for learning purposes it is a good thing.

This happened quite recently when we had spent couple vacations in Okanagan, a low wind area. I wanted to sell this Formula before that and I am very happy this didn't happen. In non planning conditions it is much easier on Formula than on Fanatic Ray 145 l (both with 8.5 Retro -my biggest sail). Also with light wind it is always a possibility of a gust, so in light air your chances of planing on Formula do increase, even if a little bit. (and when it comes and it pops up - this is a wonderful feeling)

Sailing (shlogging or gliding - no difference for me personally) completely alone in light air is a mellow fun of course but beats SUP paddling on flat water hands down (thats of course if you don't have waves nearby, waves presence changes everything in this equation; just flat water). It also helped me to improve my upwind shortboard technique in non planning conditions - "looking depressed" and burring windward rail (dramatically! like standing on the edge on this Formula in ankle deep water). My upwind angles probably are less than with a dagger on a long board, but I do go upwind shlogging on this Formula and 8.5

With your light weight I am not sure what would be your minimal size sail, if concentrating just on light air pivot jibe and flipping handwork the 7.0 might work as well.

As mentioned before on Formula the boom should be 7-10 cm higher. However the harness lines length for me is the same for both Formula and Ray 145 l. I think this is because the Formula is wider, so just setting boom higher is sufficient for me. However I had attached the second set of harness lines to my 8.5 boom. Very long lines, dedicated exclusively for comfortably shlogging on Formula in non planning conditions. I was afraid they would interfere with main harness lines, but they don't.

to sum it up - if you thinking about increasing planing time - it will do but very marginally.
but it will force you to go more in non planning conditions and this will be a great benefit overall

[grantmac017]

Iso- like 99% of all windsurfers he doesn't live in the Gorge or anywhere like it. His local conditions are mostly 10-15 mph thermals with flat water. Your largest gear would get you perhaps 20-30 days a year if you didn't work and owned a drysuit.

If he was heavier or had an interest in course racing I'd say the formula would be a great choice. But at his weight all it would do is get him higher angles and maybe 1-2 mph earlier planing.

For a person who works and wants to maximize summer TOW then looking outside the typical shortboard world is a very solid idea.

[isobars]

[mamero]