today at royal qld yacht squadron open day i saw a Bic Techno 293 One Design
displayed in all its glory with its rig.
and after chatting with wayne and phil about this growing racing class i started getting quite excited about the possibilities of relatively inexpensive one design racing around the marks being revived.
anyone else interested? i know oz is a big country and in the eighties we had a big racing scene, but unlimited budget class spelt the end of that.
anyway, just a thought!
i'm excited! 
I could be tempted by some OD racing.
Isn't the 293 just a youth class? Would suit well though, can teach your friends on it on Saturday and take it racing on Sunday.
The techno is good for it's purpose, but in general OD racing only seems viable for areas with a huge windsurfing population or for classes such as youths. It would be good to see a little bit more talent spotting going on outside of those that already windsurf though i'm not privy to their agenda.
For the rest of it- racing is as healthy now as it has been since the early 90's. In SEQ it is limited by location with only the lake and brisbane running regular events, whereas in the past shops everywhere would look to promote racing at their venue.
Slalom racing here is not gear intensive, a 7.8m sail and 120L board is all that is required to be competitive in Slalom 88 class which was designed around the gear that the majority of sailors have. At the point where there is too much for a 7.8 you can step to whatever you want as it is mostly about staying upright around the marks, no point screaming past everyone at 30+knots if you are going to spend 5 minutes emptying the water from your sail at the next gybe.
With seabreeze and other live feed weather stations gone are the days of going to a race and sitting around waiting for the wind all day. Gone also are the days of screaming, abuse and arrogant bulls*** that used to plague the racing scene.
If downwind racing isn't your thing then I'm sure tony would be happy to see you on the start line at the lake where they run regular formula/raceboard races & have been for years. Gestie what do you have to lose
Equipe III has been in development for some time. I believe it is becoming a fanatic due to the sale of mistral.
The Techno Class is in catch up mode here in Australia, as the Europeans and many other countries including Singapore and New Zealand have latched onto this inexpensive form of racing. The full rig costs around $2900 and packs neatly into a strong sail bag which carries everything bar the board and the boom. This type of setup means that racing can occur in any wind strength, from three knots up to thirty knots on the one rig. In the last six months there has not been one day where we haven't been able to sail.
Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron (RQ) in conjunction with Yachting Queensland have been very enthusiastic and are keen to get the class up and running, and are willing to give lots of support.
We are hoping to race on a regular basis out of RQ and possibly involve RSX and maybe longboards.
BIC Techno 293 in Queensland so far.
In 2008, Yachting Queensland (YQ) acquired 3 complete BIC Techno 293 packages (board & rig) to kick-start a youth sailboard development program. Padi of Surf Connect was a prominent supporter of the class and conducted training for youths aged 13 to 18, at Wellington Point, Manly and Shorncliffe.
From a very small base, 3 sailors (Joanna Sterling, Luke & Reece Baillie) represented Queensland in the OAMPS Australian Youth Championship in Mandurah in Western Australia in the Techno 293 Sailboard class. The effort was rewarded with Joanna Sterling winning the Girls Australian Championship and Luke Baillie the Boys Australian Championship. Luke’s younger brother Reece finished a very well deserved fourth place.
Based on their performance at the Australian Championship, Joanna & Luke earned the opportunity to represent Australia at the Volvo ISAF Youth Championships at Buzios in Brazil in July 2009, completing in the RSX Olympic Sailboard class. Training under Formula racer Sean O’Brien (AUS-120) and Adrian Finglas (YQ Coach) both acquitted themselves very well in a very strong international field.
In the space of 12 months, 2 good young sailboards who previously just blasted around the bay, found themselves in elite company, competing on the international scene, in an exotic foreign country.
Currently Luke, Reece & Joanna are members of YQ 2009 State Squad for BIC Techno 292 & RSX.
The penny dropped. The BIC Techno 293 development class has what the sport needs to challenge youths around the country to compete and have fun with One Design racing either around an upwind course or to slalom race. It offers a development pathway from youth to open age sailboarding, and is supported by youth training programs in each state.
4 Yachting Queensland Techno 293s competed in the Australian OAMPS Mid Winter Youth Championships at Manly in July 2009 in winds varying from 5 – 20 knots. The event was won by Reece Baillie.
Since then, 4 to 5 Techno 293 have trained each Saturday afternoon at Manly launching from RQYS at the southern end of the boat harbour. The next major event is a training camp and the O’Reilly’s Real Estate Queensland Youth Championships at Yeppoon in September.
Dads Wayne and Pat are very keen to have the Techno 293 class flourish and have recently acquired new boards for their children. Greenleader’s enthusiasm is welcomed, and it is hoped that a fleet can also be established on the Gold Coast.
O D is fun it's the most equal playing field i think
yep to all (well almost all! 
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i raced one design for a decade in the eighties and with weight divisions it was so fair(heavyweights won in strong wind, lightweights won in light wind and each division was recognised) and it was super uncomplicated.
is techno the big class at the moment? and is it just youth? i did notice open class was mentioned in techno, i reckon it would be a good thing to work on.
I was shown today some details about the kona one design, looks interesting in that you get sail size according to your weight which evens the field a bit.
yes suferingdude, but we have to move on or we will look like stand up paddle boarders who have just adopted similar hull designs of the wally for their radical new sport!
it's great to see that course racing in qld will continue. there certainly is a long history of top class sailors coming from the course racing scene here.
thumbs up to all involved.
p.s. mk it's been a long long time since i've raced around a course. i'd still rate it though as it has so many levels,tactics,skill sets to hone.
I am Super Keen!!!!
Not too keen on entering into an arms race situation though.
Old school OD Wallies would be cool too!
Greenleader
The IWA Junior, Youth & Masters Windsurfing World Championships (22-29 August 2009) at Weymouth & Portland (UK) has 260 kids from 27 countries, 16 or under competing on Techno 293s. Some 70 of these are girls.
Check out event photos
www.techno293.org/
some sons and daughters of great racers are coming to the age of racing very soon so may be one design racing will return
I have a very old one design. It is the first board I got and I absolutely love it. It's useable in just about any conditions, handles upwind sailing very well and keeps going long after the lack of wind ends the day for shorter boards. I'd jump at the chance to race mine if whoever is organising this class holds events in western Vic.
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I notice that RQ are also doing lessons for youngsters as well. Good on em. I think sometimes when the kids are out front of Manly in their dingys , they see a windsurfer go screaming past at 25 knots, they must think, that looks like fun !!
Simon at BC has a couple of Kona one designs for demo.
There's nothing so bad about having more than one OD class. No one class will ever suit everyone. We all have different tastes, different budgets, different sailing grounds, different aspirations, etc. The T293 is fantastic for some, other boards are better for others.
I spent a huge amount of time doing a lot of original research into the history of sailing for a project, and one point that really sticks out is that the conventional theory that we often have too many classes is just wrong. When you get more classes, you get a stronger sport, because more people are catered for. Imagine, for example, if everyone had to sail Wallies or Slalom. We'd have fewer people, not more. Why should all kids be squeezed into the same mould?
The T293 is great for a lot of things, but it's not the only way to go. It's great in a planing breeze, but well off the pace in light stuff compared to (say) a Wally or a teenager's dinghy like a Laser Radial. So while it may be great for programmes where you have good winds and stand-alone racing, it's struggling here in NSW where the Techno kids race against Raceboards and Wallies in locations that often have light winds.
On the other hand, lots of kids understandably don't want to sail just longboards. The important thing is to give kids something that will suit their conditions and be fun for them to sail. They can pick the rest up later.
In the UK, kids start in T15 (small sails, normally longboards) which is enormously popular. Plenty of them migrate to T293 and RSX. In France, many of them go from T293 to hybrid Youth raceboards. In Germany, the longboards rule for kids, in Scandanavia it's mainly Konas for kids. And of course, what works in Europe where the whole sport is so much stronger may not work here.
Surely the kids will be able to switch across from class to class. After all, when kids learned on Wallies and switched to IMCO for the Youth Worlds, we used to average about 2nd place in the world. That went on consistently for years, and since we got kids to learn on IMCOs (because it was the Worlds board) we've only scored one second place.
PS windsurfing has worshipped 'development' for years and in that time, it has shrunk faster than just about any sport I can think of. Maybe we should be embracing both old AND new, not just seeking the next big thing. The Wally nats this year are probably going to get 70+ now the unis are coming back, and has more teens than any other class, so they can't all hate it too much (although many will prefer other classes). Boards have been screaming by kids on Lasers for years, but the Laser class is much stronger and attracting many more kids.
