Mistral Prodigy
marbellloyd
Mistral Prodigy.
I read an article from a very well-known sailor after tests in Greece. Did
not seem to have much positive to say other than it is easy to learn on -
got hammered by one-design in up to 15+ and hammered by Formulas over 15!
I like the concept and need something to replace an ageing Mistral
Superlight. Will this do it for me and my 7 year old son? Perhaps also a
one-design replacement for the occasional trip to Cocoa Beach or Islamorada?
Happy to hear from you.
Tony
Dan Weiss
fully adjustable masttrack and daggerboard from the Equipe. It weighs about
34 pounds.
--
-Dan
"marbellloyd" <maribe...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4w0H7.39641$jP3.1...@e3500-atl1.usenetserver.com...
marbellloyd
I would love to hear from the guys who sailed it in st Pete FL a week or so
ago. Any takers?
T
"Dan Weiss" <dwu...@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:i52H7.40289$jP3.1...@e3500-atl1.usenetserver.com...
Will Harper
thought it was a pretty fun board, I've never liked longboards in planing
conditions, this thing sailed pretty well with an 8.5 powered up. It jibes like
a "real" board, that is it footsteers and carves. It would take a while for me
to get really comfortable on it, but I sent it downwind pretty powered up, and
it was pretty reasuringly easy to ride.
I think it would be a cool board for exploring coasts, etc. and will be much
more fun to race than the old Equipe, but, like I said, my longboard experience
is limited. I thought it was fun, and would be a good learning board. The race
centerboard hurt my bare feet, you need booties for that one, but they tell me
there's a recreational centerboard that does not come up through the deck. That
would be much more comfortable.
As for it being slower than an IMCO in less than 15 I would say no, but it
maybe slower in less than 5 or maybe even 10, though I doubt it. It will plane
in about 10, maybe less, so the IMCO is dust as soon as the Prodigy planes,
which is way sooner than the IMCO, I would imagine.
Because of the weight, of course it will be slower than a Formula board when
planing, but the bottom line is that it's way faster than a Formula in less
than 10, and way faster than an IMCO in more than 10.
The glass is half full, or half empty, depends on how you look at it.
w
marbellloyd wrote:
--
William S. Harper
e-mail: Wil...@gorge.net
Jack (Sarasota)
participated in discussions with those who did, and I raced against
them.
Folks liked them better in higher wind. True longboards ate them for
lunch in light, 8-10 mph air, particularly upwind.
They held up better when it was windier, but then the Formula boards
were much faster. They did not always plane before the longboards,
but sometimes were faster, and sometimes slower. Some of this is
because no one has enough time on them to get really dialed in.
Being short, they did not track well, but the other side was that they
tacked very easily, opening up opportunities for tactical games like
one might play with easy to tack dingys.
Folks thought they would make good beginner boards because they were
wide enough to be rather stable. Same folks had a good time racing
them as a one design class. Weight of sailor was very important. Big
guys got killed if it wasn't blowing.
BTW, longboards ruled in the long distance race. Ben Barger's IMCO
board didn't seem to keep him from winning all the marbles.
Will, why doesn't your Equipe footsteer and carve? Mine does, and
you are a much more experienced sailor.
Jack (Sarasota)
Defender of the longboard
"Will Harper" <wil...@gorge.net> wrote in message
news:3BF07B1C...@gorge.net...
marbellloyd
of finding one to try!
Have had long boards for so long that I am reluctant to let the Superlight
go. Lat time I thought I would go with one board only and bought a Mistral
Echo - not a huge success. Would still like to have an Equipe hull to get
somewhere upwind fast and over the shortest distance, the Superlight and I
together make a bulky package.
Thanks - I will give the Prodigy a blast.
Tony
"Jack (Sarasota)" <jack.t...@home.com> wrote in message
news:<ih1I7.54305$cF.44...@news1.rdc1.fl.home.com>...
Jack (Sarasota)
You've got the right idea. Don't get rid of that Superlight until you
have another "long" board that you will be happy with. I still get
spanked by an original superlight in winds under 10 mph when I go fun
races that Fleet 12 puts on.
Jack (Sarasota)
"marbellloyd" <maribe...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:JniI7.268$q36....@e3500-atl2.usenetserver.com...
Andreas Macke
>
> As for it being slower than an IMCO in less than 15 I would say no, but it
> maybe slower in less than 5 or maybe even 10, though I doubt it. It will plane
> in about 10, maybe less, so the IMCO is dust as soon as the Prodigy planes,
> which is way sooner than the IMCO, I would imagine.
>
> Because of the weight, of course it will be slower than a Formula board when
> planing, but the bottom line is that it's way faster than a Formula in less
> than 10, and way faster than an IMCO in more than 10.
> The glass is half full, or half empty, depends on how you look at it.
>
> w
The continued development on Formula gear is squeezing that niche more
and more. With a board like the * 175 and a sail > 10, you're planing
and getting great angles in less than ten knots, probably more like 8,
even if you are heavy. Looking at the new 100cm boards and the now
feasible 12m sails, that's likely to come down at least another knot.
Give it another couple years, and we'll probably be at a point where
6knots are fully raceable on Formula gear. At that point, the raison
d'etre for something like the Prodigy is getting very hard to see. Of
course, it might have helped if they had used some more modern
construction to get the weight down, but I guess that wouldn't have
hit the target market's requirements.
Which comes down to the heart of the matter. Supposedly, the Prodigy
is targeted to be an IMCO successor, so it's supposed to be an
improvement on that concept. In that regard, it does well - it's
faster in most conditions (except for the very lightest air), it's a
little more inclusive (i.e., heavier sailors will be marginally less
screwed competing on Prodigy than on IMCO), and it looks a little more
modern (never underestimate the importance of such merely
psychological factors).
Unfortunately for Mistral, the Prodigy as an improvement over the IMCO
is akin to building a better, more user-friendly, sexier sliderule
shortly after the introduction of cheap and ubiquitous digital
electronic calculators. Sure, there are some niches in which the
sliderule will blow away the calculator (such as when you're out of
batteries), but in most conditions, it's really no contest.
What does that mean for the Olympics? Nothing! Olympic sailing is
dominated by a yachting mind set steeped in one-design mentality. The
game is the challenge of racing others on the exact same gear, no
matter how crappy that gear may be (I don't think anyone ever said
that the Finn is fun to sail). And the fact that sailing is such a
minor part of the Olympic revenue picture has relegated venue
selection into the realm of what's convenient for organizers, as
opposed to where there might be wind (the Athens games could simply
hold the sailing events in the Greek isles as opposed to Athens; some
of the best summer breezes, only a half-hour flight, and very
picturesque surroundings - but that won't happen, and the fleet will
bob around in 0-2 instead).
So if Mistral's goal was to build a board that could replace the IMCO
as the next Olympic class in the current Olympic windsurfing paradigm,
they did a great job. Too bad that's so irrelevant to the sport of
windsurfing itself...
Andreas
rkuntz
long narrow hull exceeds that of a short wide one, i.e. until the Prodigy planes, the IMCO
always wins on all points of sail, after it begins planning that the Prodigy's hull speed
exceeds that of the IMCO on beats and reaches, upwind performance depends on pointing
angle and the velocity made good of the Prodigy, sometimes it wins, sometimes it doesn't.
Frank Weston notes elsewhere that a two board racing quiver looks attractive. A long
board for subplanning light wind conditions and a wide formula type board for planning
conditions. In my view the Prodigy is unlikely to be competative in either mode.
All in all the Prodigy is probably 5 years too late to the market.
of course just my 2c
Ray
Ellen Faller
I tried one of the Prodigy's at the Nationals, and I have to say that
what you've said was pretty much what I thought at the time. It was fine
to sail, and did what it was designed to do well. But compared to other
boards, it did nothing special, and it was not special enough to make me
want to spend money on one.
One other drawback (to me in my world) is that it is a just that, a
specialized board for racing and not something I would want to spend my
"free" time on just BAFing, or enjoying for recreational sailing. What I
DO like about Formula is that I can enjoy the boards for pure fun as
well as for racing and can mix focussed race tuning (spoken as if I
really did spend time at this...) with sailing for fun, relaxation and
release (by far the most time). If I'm out sailing for 4 hours, I can
"train" for as little as 5 minutes, or as much as 3.75 hours on the
Formula, but even when I'm playing, I'm learning the board.
Ellen
