It was raining heavily all day, and that means my new Exocet Cruiser had to arrive today. Man, it comes with a lot of packaging. I wonder if there's any way to reduce some of this. The board and rigging came in one huge box, and the board itself was in a smaller box inside. Here the board is partially exposed -- I took off the bubble wrap.
First impressions:
The graphics are very pretty. I like the bright red/aqua motif and the dramatic contrast. (Note to self: blog entry on board color schemes.) It definitely feels and looks like a wideboard, although it's 15 liters less than my old Go. The rails feel thinner than the Go, and the whole thing seems a bit slimmer.
The daggerboard knob is a huge improvement over the Kona. First of all: it's padded. It won't shred your feet when you're trying to raise and lower the darn thing. Second: the knob is removable! This means no more having to remove the daggerboard when racking! Exocet, you did a nice job with this daggerboard; what gives with the Kona? Why is it so wonky compared to this? The daggerboard also has little locking mechanisms at the fully extended and retracted marks. My impression is that this daggerboard is only meant to be used in these positions.
The fin seems a little small compared to the size of the board, although I think it'll be fine for freeriding. It's clearly a shallow water fin. It's also kind of ugly, like a flat hunk of cheese: no sense of aquatic grace. My hand is there for scale.
The weed fin I have from the Go has more surface area than the standard fin. Notice that the weed fin is a Tuttle box but the factory fin is a Deep Tuttle.
Here's the fin on the board.
This is the famous Exocet Cruiser roller wheel. It seems like a pleasant invention. Note how Exocet has that arrow on the EVA deck pointing to the wheel, as if anybody would miss it. When I put the board on the wheel, my wife commented, “Hey, maybe you can mow the lawn with this thing?” Cute. The board did move quite well, and it solves the problem of how to carry a board this large. I just hope the roller doesn't get in the way of my feet. (I'm sure a purist would eschew such an invention because of the extra weight.)
I think I could have done a better job with the pictures, but it was raining pretty hard. No, I couldn't have waited because the stuff was completely taking over my porch.
3 comments:
I rented that same board in Hatteras for the kids last summer, of course I had to sail it too.
Be careful not to lose the dagger board knob. That piece of unprotected tube will mess up your feet. The one I used had an old tennis ball over it but it kept falling off.
The board sailed well of course I didn't get to sail it with straps because it was a beginners rental. It did work upwind with the dagger down. I imagine with a decent fin and a large sail it will plane up sooner than the Kona. It is unfortunate that it has all that weight with the roller, daggerboard and the Eva foam. It might perform even better.
I realize that this won't be a high performer. I was mostly looking for a medium flotation wideboard with a daggerboard, which this is. I'm glad you had some good impressions of the board. I'm looking forwards to sailing, once we get some wind up here in the Hudson Valley.
-Ian
There's nothing like a new board to brighten one's day. Congratulations on the new arrival!
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