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2008 Olympics and RS:X Hybrid
By Scott | August 12, 2008
W Care Bears: Journey to Joke-a-Lot ipod ith Olympic windsurfing racing going on this week now is a good time to talk about the RS:X board used in the Olympics. The RS:X One Design board is sold by Neil Pryde a competitor of Mistral. The official Neil Pryde RS:X Class Web site is http://rsxclass.com/. The RS:X board and rig is also considered a Hybrid one design kit like the Mistral Prodigy is. So when an RS:X shows up at a regatta it will race in the same Hybrid class that I race in. Unfortunately that kit uses a larger sail and fin which gives it an advantage so I’m never happy to see one. It would be nice if the Hybrid class for US Windsurfing had a limit of an 9.5 sail and 56 cm on the fin to help equal everyone out.
The RS:X class sail for men is 9.5 square meters in size and women an 8.5. Perhaps the largest difference is that most racers use a very long 70cm fin with a deep tuttle box. I’ve raced against the RS:X on several occasions and in medium to high winds it betters the Prodigy. On a course where winds are up and down a bit in a mixture of light to medium air the kits are pretty equal. In really light winds the Prodigy kit will better the RS:X even with the Prodigy using a square meter less of sail. The RS:X doesn’t have any rail thus it really sucks in light ( < 6mph) winds. I haven’t priced the RS:X lately but from what I’ve heard they are hard to get and much more costly than a Prodigy. Given that we don’t seem to know from one to the next Olympic’s if there will even be Olympic windsurfing the class probably won’t grow outside of those contending for a spot on their countrie’s Olympic teams.
Nancy Rios the USA RS:X women’s Olympic hopeful has a blog at http://www.nancyrioswindsurfing.blogspot.com/
Given the tones of her postings the first couple days in Quingdao are not going well as it sounded like it has been a pump fest. At the 2007 Calema Midwinters in Florida I raced in several races against Nancy and I know she would be doing well if the winds were up. Likewise Ben Barger the USA men’s entry is pretty far back in the standings also after four races. Some good news is Annie Tunncliffe in Radical Laser who did sail just up the road from Toledo out of North Cape Yacht club is in first after two races!
Results of races here:
http://www.sailing.org/olympics/resultscentre.php?eventid=16195
Some Olympic windsurfing history:
1984 Los Angeles windsurfing was a demonstration sport, Scott Steel from USA won a second using the European WindGlider. The other board considered was the Windsurfer One Design manufactured by Hoyle Schwitzer of the USA.
1988 Pusan Korea Mike Gebhart from the USA won the Bronze on a Lechner Dvision II which was built in Austria. The Division II has a rounded hull and resembled the old BIC 152 if you have ever seen one of those.
1992 Barcelona Spain Mike Gebhart from the USA won the Silver on a modifed Division II Lechner. The Lechner was beefed up and a larger 7.3 sail supplied by Neil Pryde was used. As in previous events there was alot of equipment failure which led to the Mistral IMCO longboard being choosen for the next Olympics. They had a distribution system with dealers that made the board easily available near worldwide.
1996 Atlanta Olympics were sailed in Savannah on the Warsaw Sound. The Mistral IMCO performed well and it’s ready supply and low cost boosted Olympic as well as amatuer level racing world wide.
2000 Sydney Australia there was no equipment changes per say however in 1997 Mistral had attempted to shift production of the IMCO to Malaysia along with making some improvements on the board and rig. However after difficulties it had to move production back to Europe. That led to a shortage of boards and concerns that One Design wasn’t so One and unfortunately that started a discent movement against the Mistral IMCO.
2004 Athens Greece, this was the last time the Mistral IMCO was used. With Formula style racing gaining popularity in Europe and with Olympic politics at their worst the Neil Pryde RS:X was chosen in 2005 as the next Olympic board. Several boards were evaluated including a lightweight version of the Mistral Prodigy.
2008 China – the Neil Pryde RS:X is new Olympic board being used. Light winds are in the forecast thus likely this will be a pump fest event. It will be interesting to hear what the windsurfing Olympic community thinks of the RS:X after the 2008 Olympics.
My opinion is the bad thing about the RS:X is it is not a longboard or a full sized Hybird like the Prodigy. The supply of used Mistral IMCO Longboards was about endless and they helped many people get into the sport of windsurfing during the 90′s. The fact they were known to be the Olympic board for near 12 years was a big plus. They sailed very well in light winds and they didn’t particulary cost much.
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