Can anyone give me any advice on the differences between these two boards?
I'm currently sailing on a Futura in Port Phillip Bay, most often with a 6.6 and a 37cm fin - but up to an 8m cammed sail in lighter winds. I like the control, speed and handling of the Futura through the chop, and its ability to keep upwind when the breeze drops. Also seems very tuneable in terms of the ride by moving the mast foot a cm back and forward.
I'm now considering a CA, but am wondering whether a full slalom board is the way to go. What would I be sacrificing with the CA sailing in the Bay?
I bought a CA SL70 a couple of years back after comparing it to the Futura 122 and JP SuperSport (2010 vintages). Pretty sure you wont be disappointed with the CA in terms of speed and control in chop. I've had it in some pretty nasty overpowered conditions (as it's my only board) and I've always felt my smallest sail at 6.6m was more of a limitation than the board.
It seemed to stay on the plane through gusts much better too. Not sure if this is the result of more volume in the tail as it looked like that was the case but can be hard to tell when comparing board shapes. Biggest thing I noted was capacity to gybe. The CA felt a lot more locked in going around, not sure if that's rocker line as it does look quite thin in the nose next to the Futura. Seems to hold speed well and it goes around on various radiai. Futura was a nice board to gybe too, but I found it had one sweet spot in terms of radius where it felt dialed in, whilst the CA you got that feeling over a wider range.
A lot of this might come down to fins too. This was a Futura that was running a stock Drake at the time. The CA had a C3 Venom. I didn't get the chance to swap fins to compare. I also dont move the mast track on the board at all after some initial experimenting. About 1cm back from the middle of the track is where it stays over 2 fins and 2 sails. The geometry seems to be right for me there anyway.
I had similar concerns on a "full" slalom board compared to the freerides. The CA has been surprisingly easy to sail - easier than the JP Freeride I had previously in fact. This could be the shape and volume fitting my conditions better (JP was 125l and long whilst CA is 112 and noticeably shorter).
Suggest either way you get an email conversation going with James Dinnis at CA, very knowledgeable and laid back guy.
