Newsgroups: rec.windsurfing

> >Re: Seatrend durability
> >
> >Last year I attended a seminiar put on by Seatrend where they seemed to
> >be pretty confidient about the durability of their normal weight boards.
> >The Seatrend rep said he didn't expect to have to replace any under warranty
> >because it just wasn't possible to break them by sailing or jumping.
> >
> >However, I ran into Duncan Missimer of HP last fall and he told me about
> >a Bay Area sailor named Matt Yamamoto who, if I remember correctly, destroyed
> >three Seatrends last year, and they wouldn't honor the warranty on the last
> >one.  He bought an epoxy ASD and it's held up to all of his abuse.
> >
> >-Jonathan		hue@island.COM
> ----------
> I believe that B&D Sports GAVE Matt his money back and he had ASD build him
> a "Matt proof" board.  They came close as it broke a bit once, but they 
> fixed it and I don't think Matt's broken one in quite a while and that is
> pretty good as Matt goes through gear like no one I know twice his weight.
> 
> -Kirk out

Hi, Matt Yamamoto here.  Actually, it was 5 Seatrend boards that
Windsurf Warehouse replaced under warranty before they allowed me to
roll over the cost of the board into a new custom ASD epoxy sandwich
board.  3 of the boards that failed were 1990 9.0 Epoxy IIs and 2 were
1991 8.8 Epoxy IIs.  2 boards failed due to mast track delamination, 1
failed because the finbox broke in half, 1 developed a lengthwise crack
between the mast track and footstraps and 1 started taking on water near
the footstrap plugs.  All of the board failures except for the one
involving the footstrap plug were likely caused by jumping.  The finbox
failure was likely caused by a defective Chinook finbox rather than a
weak finbox design.

IMHO, the new Seatrends (1990 model and newer) are very good all around
boards IF YOU DO NOT SAIL AGRESSIVELY AND JUMP.  I was very happy with
the boards when they were not in the shop being replaced or repaired :-).
I am admittedly very hard on my equipment and unless you sail very
aggressively, you are not likely to have the types of problems I had.
In summary, I would say that the weakest part of the board is the
mast track.  A few of the Seatrends sold at the Vela sale last year had
delaminated mast tracks and one person I know has delaminated the mast
track on a '91 World Cup 8.8.  This problem may have been corrected in
the '92 model boards - the Seatrend reps at last year's board design
seminar were talking about using high density foam cassettes for the
mast track or having the mast track be bonded to the top and bottom
decks.  I would avoid 1989 and older Seatrend models - they appear to
have been much worse in terms of durability.

As for the ASD board, as of Friday, I have now broken the fin box twice
on my 9 month old epoxy sandwich board.  In defense of ASD, I
should mention that I requested they build the board with a standard
chinook finbox instead of the recommended stronger tuttle box.  Needless
to say, they will not be putting in another chinook fin box.

For reference, I am 160lbs and usually sail in 4.0 to 5.5 conditons in
the San Francisco Bay in moderate chop and swells.  In the last two
years I have broken:

	- 5 Seatrend Epoxy II boards
	- the finbox on my ASD board (twice)
	- 4 booms
          - a 2 year old WSH clamp on
	  - A 6mo old Fleetwood Carbon
	  - A 4mo old '91 DaKine T8 Slalom
	  - A 3mo old '91 ART Wave (twice)
	- 1 6mo old WSH gold mast base extension
	- 2 WSH universals
	- bottom half of my 2 yr old North aluminum 2 piece mast
	- a 2 wk old 2 piece Fiberspar performance red carbon mast
	- 3 sails
	- 3 fins

I would be interested in hearing from other "aggressive" sailors
on what equipment to avoid and what equipment they would recommend
(especially on booms and mast base extensions).  Here are my
recommendations on durable equipment:

	- Beefed up ASD epoxy sandwich board with tuttle box
	- Waddell Monoslalom sails (assuming you want *monofilm* slalom sails)
	- 1 piece Fiberspar performance or wave series masts