As I'm an even too proud owner of a Serenity I'm courious to know if there something that can go as fast as my long sailing gondola. Don't know in the past, as this kind of boards were out of market when I've started, and anyway more than 15 kg for me could be a problem.
Instead of it I've also seen some new sup-race style, that starting from the Serenity brother K-15, now are shaped long and narrow, and have high and narrow bow; and therefore some could be more easy to carry with car than my beloved but big serenity, I'm thinking at RRD Cruiser Convertible or others convertible shapes

is the serenity, or others, really that much better than a mid 90s equipe?
thats my only experience in subplaning gliding...but i think it seems pretty good.
and is still good when youre planing..

My curiosity is increasing, as I often see some longboards being sold on ebay at cheap prices, and so I dream of carrying over the roof of my car a board with daggerboard instead of my widebody flapper, so I could have the possibility of gliding even in small lakes with few knots. But I don't want to loose much planing ability.
So, what about giving votes to the boards?
Assuming that for Serenity gliding is 10/10 and planing is 0/10 and in opposite a formula board is gliding 1/10 end planing (I mean easyness) 10/10, what about other boards? I mean actual but also from the past, but not so far and with not actual devices. Also sizes could help to undertand if it's too much a monster board from the past.

Starboard Serenity, Sportech, 460x61,5, about 14 kg: planing 0/10 - gliding 8/10 (edit)
Div. 2 boards (no specs - early 80's) : planing? - gliding 10/10

Last edited by Nico (2011-06-14 07:48:51)

Ouch!
I respect you point of view, and I can't compare my Serenity with a DIV 2 board since I've never tried one, in '82 I was unfortunately still far from beginning this sport. If I'll find one Div 2 I'll surely try it. Yes we should keep in mind that in 1982 materials were so far from actual, more heavy and flexible... According to your judgement anyway I lower the vote of Serenity from 10 to 8, and give top 10 to div 2 in gliding.
About fast or not, in my still little experience the Serenity is simply serene under 4-5 knots, but becomes really imho fast in the 5-10 knots range, and not so few people confirmed this, being astonished after trying it. Yes, I'm talking about the second version of Serenity, really the first up to 2008, really different, seemed also to me to have some problems (nose always up over the water), so I don't know what version you've tested. Reaching 10-12 knots of wind Serenity give the feeling to be at its upper limit, but who cares? I simply unlock my Stealths from it and attach to the Sting Ray and start planing. Yes on the upper limit the bow open the water and spray it in my ankles, so pheraphs something could done better for this situation, but it's always the time to switch to a planing board; i remember similar problem in some situations with my Wizzard, designed by Peter Thommen, and I've read something like this also about Witchcraft tests.
The fact is that in my experience since about 1996 I've never find anything so beautiful and gliding, neither in long and narow board of that time, I mean 320, 330 and 350 cm with daggerboard, so for us "late" windsurfers Serenity is absolutely new even if is declared not to be new from his own designers, they clearly say it's inspired by Div 2 boards.
About your last statement I'm not a shaper or engineer, but I'm a little bit surprised, but still.. serene on it. On the deck is written designed by Svein Rasmussen, Jim Drake, Per Andersson, Tiesda You. Especially the second one is not the ehm last name in windsurfing (literally the first).
And also the other guys are not so novice, that guy named Svein is involved in board design since a lot, and some ideas he had changed the history of windsurfing.
But I'd like to understand, what are the things in Serenity shape that could be changed or improved? I can't imagine an even faster lightwind board, so understanding where are the problems could be helpful.

Last edited by Nico (2011-06-14 12:15:23)

My english is not so good so I cannot perfectly understand what you mean.  If you talk about the stock Drake Race XL 70 cm fin like a wrong fin then.. I've never used it! In my usual spot I can only use super raked seaweed fin as it has super shallow water, mainly a Select Delta Antiweed XXL, only 27,5 cm deep, but made for 8-10 sqm sails; and sometime a common G10 40 cm dep (56 long); Not surely a great upwind performance, but perhaphs less drag and... running in 50 cm of water! Having just found another spot in the south lagoon with deeper waters, now I want to try the original setup now.
Ok I understand, Div 2 where made for racing with low winds in the most competitive era of windsurfing, Serenity is made for give an emotional ride to common windsurfers like me, it is a supelightwind "freeride" so I can agree, less techincal and performing and more immediate feeling.
But if only fin is the problem yes, also the main shaper, Tiesda You, had to admit that for a lot of people the big red drake supplied is excessive and give an even too much "violent" performance, and in fact the SB rfiders use another softer fin; but for sure nowaday there are no fin shapers that make fins and daggerboards for underplaning situations, compered to Div times, so not much to do...

Last edited by Nico (2011-06-15 10:27:15)

I am a a longboard junkie, so understand your fascination.  I have many of the long Mistrals (Superlight, Equipe [2 versions], Maui, and Pacifico, with lots of experience with the old Malibu as well, similar to the Ventura), and also have a Fanatic Mega Cat (the carbon, large carbon dagger, and trippy graphics one) and can tell you unequivocally that the Superlight is the best sub-planing board.  It is not a good planing board - that's an understatement (it has a low terminal velocity).  Of the boards I have the Mega Cat is the best all-arounder, but I agree that a D2 board would likely be better still (definitely better sub-planing).  I have been unsuccessfully looking for one for 3 years, but you would no doubt have better luck in Europe.  The new AHD Tacktik looks like a kind of D2 hybrid - interesting board, but it will never appear around here (East Coast US).  Actually, I would love to see one of the wooden boat kit companies offer a D2 kit (or at least a laser-cut frame) - last year I saw photo of a D2 board from the early/mid 80's made of wood - beautiful, don't think it would be too difficult, and I can't think of a another way to get my hands on one.

<image>
not the best photo

Hi from Nico. Serenity has from bow to stern: the common pressure valve, the us mast track, a cup with the handle screwed with two screws longitudinally, and then the cup with inside the two holes for screwing the daggerboard-fin in the deeptuttlebox. Nothing more, on the deck of mine. I remember that the first proto shown in some videos hasn't the cup for the fin screws, they were over the deck.
The versions after 2009 has a small us track in the tail for an added small directional fin.
Show us a photo please. Tried Serenity in strong winds?

Last edited by Nico (2012-04-23 11:00:23)

If I remember correctly these two holes are for attaching a roller for easier transportation.
Get a *board catalog from the last couple of years (or download the pdf from starboard.com) and look for it in the accessories section

Take a look at page 30
"Clipperwheel attachment inserts in the tail"
http://gallery.star-board.com/share_gal … og_Web.pdf