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What is the philosophy behind Formula Experience Class?
A lot of short board windsurfing classes and organisations are concentrating on the top level in windsurfing. PWA, FW, Euro Cup, IFCA are all classes where expensive development kit is used. New boards, sails, mast and other items are introduced each year. If you want to be competitive at this level, you need to invest a lot. Everything has to be correct. Small advantages can decide if you win or come second. Like using a mast which is slightly stiffer when the wind speed changes a couple of knots. Nothing wrong with that…. if you can afford it!
It is like Formula 1 car racing (or oval racing in the US). Very exiting but also very expensive and unfortunately not realistic for everyone.
Formula Experience is more like sports car racing. Also very exiting and fast but on equipment that everybody can afford and that is not outdated within a year. The focus of FE racing is less on equipment and more on personal skills. Speed, tactics, etc. By keeping the equipment at reasonable cost, the class is open to competitors all over the world and not just to those living in countries that are lucky enough to have a thriving economy.
When writing the class rules, we were aiming at rigs that match the characteristics of the ASA boards, which are both durable and cheap, and the philosophy of the class.
What we wanted to prevent at all cost is that some competitors would feel the need to buy rigs costing thousands of Euros or Dollars. (There are already masts on the market retailing at $1500!!) It would be like installing a F1 engine in a sports car.
At the same time, we needed to keep the rigs light and responsive enough to be fun to race with.
So in the end we settled for aluminium alloy booms which are both light and cheap (1/3 of the cost of a carbon boom). Masts with 50-75% carbon fibres that are cheaper and more durable than the full carbon versions but still very light. The difference between a 75% and a 100% mast is roughly 300 grams although admittedly, the $1500 masts are considerably lighter.
As it is impossible to measure carbon content at an event, we had to "translate" the carbon content into weight per length. Of course, as in any rule, there are always border line cases and it is impossible to write a rule that will allow exactly what you want and exclude everything you do not want.
As for fins, there is a retail price limit of € 150 for replacement fins. All the replacements fins Starboard and BIC offer for their ASA boards, meet this requirement.
Why this limit? Both BIC and Starboard make their boards available for the Formula Experience class for very attractive retail prices. It would then be rather strange to allow fins costing more than the original boards including the original fin.
During race events, the equipment you can use is limited to:
1 board, 2 fins and two rigs.
Of course all rules have their pros and cons. Yes, they limit you somewhat in optimising your equipment but for us the pros outweigh that by far:
You can buy a set of equipment and go racing without having to worry about buying special race fins, a super light weight full carbon mast an much more, just to be competitive.
And most importantly, it opens competition for those sailors living in countries where a couple of hundred, let alone several thousand Euros or Dollars more is the difference between competing or staying on the beach because of lack of money.
FAQ
Where to buy aluminium alloy booms?
Some producers of alloy booms are:
Chinook (www.chinooksailing.com)
Nautix (www.nautix.com)
Windsurfing Hawaii
Neil Pryde
Gulftech
Hawaiian Pro Line (www.hawaiianproline.com)
Naish (www.naishsails.com)
Gun
Which masts are class legal?
There are many masts on the market so this list below is only covering some. But nearly all masts of 75% or less fit the criteria. Check e.g. www.mytrims.com/masts
Some names: North Viper 75 & Xcellerator, Powerex Z-axis Race & Z Free, Fiberspar 4800 & 4200 QT, Neil Pryde Free ride Pro, Nautix Gold Slalom IMCS 34&32
The FE class tries to keep the cost down but is second hand equipment, even if it does not meet the class rules, not cheaper?
Yes and no. Some may get their hands on second hand Formula Windsurfing equipment that is actually lower in cost than new Formula Experience equipment. There are however some side effects. Those that cannot, for whatever reason, buy second hand equipment are than forced to buy new. But, to stay competitive, they will have to buy the more expensive full Formula Windsurfing gear and the whole idea of a cheaper class is lost.
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