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Fanatic RAY 95 (2009) [test]

This board is very simple to ride, you don't need to be commited. On this video the lowwind capability is showed. On the flat there are almost no difference acceleration to any other v-bottom slalomboard.

Is it faster than other slalomboards?

Crosswind it seems to be as fast as slalomboards, however pointing/overtaking/windrange is not as good as the falcon for example.


Videosession: Oktober 15th 2008, Netherlands, Oosterland "the brace"





When we tested the Ray on the Amstelmeer I really liked it, and on gps I didn't see much difference between falcon 89 and ray 95. It wasn't completly fair since there was a little bit more wind when I used the ray.

On the Amstelmeer I didn't looked for flat spots, and the ray doesn't seem bothered, it is quite in its element in difficult conditions. For most people it is nice the ray is in those conditions not on the edge. For ultimate topspeed I found it not very fast accelerating over 0,5-1m chop, but very steady and high average speed. (OK, but who wants to go 35-38kn or 65-68kmh over big chop)

Getting into planning was not very fast, the falcon 89 was a bit faster into planning mode. However when you are not pumping into planning mode, the ray will be better. I got into planning around 12kn 4bft, but think about 15kn/5bft if you want to get planning without to much effort.

Sails & Fins
When testing we used 6.2/6.7/7.2 NP RSRacing, all sails worked fine, I think 6.7 is the sweetspot. The standard G10 fin that came with the board worked very well, first time for me I found the standard fin fast enough! For some better upwind&downwind a Select SL7 helped.

Boardscore:

  • Upwind: 7
  • Downwind: 7
  • Crosswind: 9
  • Acceration: 7
  • Windgusts handling: 10
  • Windlull handling: 7
  • Plug & play: 10
  • Planning: 6
  • Jumping: 8
  • Gybing: 10
  • Standardfin: 8

Ray short description:

A board made for easy tuning, gybing and never out of control. Yet very fast crosswind.

Eriksurf

Erik is windsurfer for 10+ years. In his daily life he is professional in construction dewatering, advisor, troubleshooter. Erik likes adventures, explore and to challenge himself. During his life he is trying to get the best out of it and have respect for the earth, nature and future generations. The modern world is about sharing, in this blog Erik shares his experiences, selfreflection and lessons learned.

2 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 03, 2009

    Hallo Erik,
    Ik ben onder de indruk van je blog; zal veel uurtjes gekost hebben om een dergelijk uitgebreide, kwalitatief hoogstaande en omvangrijke blog op te bouwen.
    Inmiddels heb ik aardig wat ervaring met de Ray95 (zie http://members.quicknet.nl/elly.vollmann/surflog/) en ben er weg van. Ik voer maandag er met een 7 meter V8 op vanaf het schapendijkje en op de posting van Rene Mienis vond ik dat hij met 6,7 voer terwijl ik soms wel een meter kleiner vaar dan Rene (mijn gewicht ca. 74 kg). Ik stel je mij advies op prijs aangaande de mastvoet positie. De voetbanden heb ik geheel achterin staan, hetgeen mij bevalt.

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  2. EriksurfJune 03, 2009

    Frank,

    Bedankt voor het compliment! De
    Fanatic Ray 95 is echt een superboard inderdaad, De voetbanden voeren we toen ook helemaal achterin. De mastvoet staat denk ik het beste rond 132-133cm van de achterkant van je board. Het zou met een V8 iets in die omgeving moeten zijn.

    gr,

    Erik

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