question about an old Mistral Malibu board

[btek]

I have recently picked up an early/mid 80s Mistral Malibu board with a 6.0 sail. The equipment is in great condition, except I am having a problem with the mast track:

- The handle on the brake device designed to keep the mast foot from moving in the track is broken off. I am concerned about the mast foot traveling in the track while out on the water...

- There is another line there which purpose is unclear to me (possibly to help move the mast foot on the track when the brake is released). Unfortunately, the way it is currently installed, it does not do anything.

Please refer to pictures below for more detail.

I would like ask a few questions:

- Is anyone familiar enough with this setup to be able to provide specific advice on how to address the above issues?

- Considering the age of the board, are there still any user manuals floating around anywhere, which might help me figure out how to replace the brake handle and reroute the adjustment line?

- If unable to come up with some kind of a replacement or makeshift brake handle replacement, should I consider ways of fixing the mast foot position along the track permanently?

After a half-day lesson last summer, and sailing a few times on a large learning board with a 4m sail in up to 20kts since, I still consider myself to be a beginner windsufer. I feel that I can learn quickly and have a decent grasp on windsurfing dynamics based on years of sailing experience. Still haven't had a chance to practice any beach or water starts.

I would like to get a bit more experience with windsurfing before putting more money into it, and would also like to ask a few more questions before getting myself further involved with fixing my current board:

- Is is worth it? Considering that my gear is so old, even though in good condition...

- Would you recommend any online source for other used gear and old parts? I live in Houston, and there is only one kitesurfing shop around which I am aware of.

- I recently came across a very cheap mid-90s Bic 250. It sounds like a larger and possibly less sportier board, but it is said to be in great shape (I will have a chance to look at it soon). If it does prove to be in fully functional condition, would any of you recommend it to be a potentially better replacement for my current setup?

I would appreciate any input or suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

[isobars]

Take a small piece of 1/4" - 3/8" thick aluminum.
Hand-cut it (vice, hacksaw, and file) to about 2-3 inches long, with a width a few mm less than the inside width of your track.
Get all that crap (sliding car, lines, etc.) out of your track and discard the crap.
Drop your piece of aluminum into the track and make sure it slides back and forth freely.
Fish out your new slider and drill and tap a hole in the center of it matching the threads of a one-bolt Chinook mast foot, or, better yet, make the slider more like 4"-5" long and drill and tap two holes in it to match the bolts of a two-bolt Chinook mast foot.
Mount your mast foot into your hole(s) and sail away.

No, you can no longer adjust your mast position on the fly, but then neither can 99% of the rest of us, so you don't care.

This works fine, but you will be far better served by buying any of the much more suitable boards others will recommend. That frigging Malibu will discourage you from continuing with the sport unless you live somewhere like Corpus Christi or Hatteras where you can fool with it every day and walk back.

Mike \m/

[windward1]

Hi btek,

I had a Mistral Malibu and found it fun, but it was not my first board. I had the sliding saddle break and had a machine shop make me a new one, but Mike is right, you won't need to be changing mast position that often and can go into the beach to do it if you are testing different positions. His solution is simpler.

I also have a Bic 283 which I still uses and find fun. IF the Bic 250 you are going to look at has more beam than the Malibu, it should be an easier board to learn on.

I came from a sailing background as well. While in lighter winds, the sailing knowledge you have will help. When you get up in higher winds, like over 20 knots, you will need to discard some of that sailing knowledge as it will hold you back. High speed windsurfing is its own sport and the physics and dynamics are a whole new game.

Don't give up, if you find windsurfing difficult at first. Once you get past the beginner stage there is still a lot of learning to do, but you will be having so much fun, I think you will find it worth it.

Windward1

[Wind_Boarder]

I also have the same recommendation as Mike.

My friend and I also learned on a Mistral Malibu. In the end we just took all the hardware out of the mast track and put in a slider nut which you can buy that takes a Chinook mast base. Many windsurf shops carry this nut. Unless you are planning on doing some serious racing, using a fixed mast base position works just fine.

If you still feel inclined to repair the mast track, Ocean Air Sports has a variety of Mistral repair parts for sale.

Being a longboard, the Malibu will outrun modern short boards in sub-planing conditions. It transitions very smoothly from sub-planing (slogging) to planing and it planes very smoothly. I also found that it cuts through chop really well because it is so long and it crosses across chop crests so it actually feels smooth in choppy water (eg. Coyote Point in the SF Bay).

You can learn tacks and pivot jibes on this board but keep in mind that you will be learning longboard techniques that will need to be modified when you move to a short board. When tacking a longboard, you need to turn the board onto the new tack (past 12 o'clock) before switching sides. Don't forget to push with your feet to help turn the board onto the new tack. On a shortboard you switch sides (and get backwinded) before turning the board onto the new tack. When pivot jibing a longboard, you need to step really far back on the board to help spin the board around. Many beginners forget to step back during a pivot jibe and spend a lot of time and effort trying to jibe with only the sail. One challenging thing with this board is the very narrow tail which makes planing jibes tricky. Planing jibes on the Malibu need to be long and drawn out and you can't flip the sail until you are completely on the new tack or else you get pulled over the board because the board has so much inertia when turning. For learning carve jibes, you are better off on a modern short board.

We still have the Malibu but it currently serves as our search and rescue board for retrieving lost gear downwind and towing it back.

Good luck,
Alak.

[isobars]

Heck ... I shouldda patented my slider nut. I couldda made 13 cents on it by now. '-) Go buy one.

Mike \m/

[einhorn]

I learned on the Malibu back in the early 80s, with a large camber-induced 6.0 sail, and I spent years learning to do what someone on new equipment learns in a day. Look up my post called "is there a name for this"

Years ago Windsurfing magazine wrote a piece that has become a classic. They took several burly professional watersport jocks to Bonaire or South Padre or some other perfect place to learn windsurfing and put them on vintage equipment. They also took a few small, cute girls from the office who looked good in bikinis and put them (the girls in the bikins) on new equipment. The guys thrashed around, cursed, hurt their backs, and generally got really pissed off as they floundered and watched the girls sailing around, having a great time. By the end of the day the guys were so frustrated that they eventually raided the girls' rigs, tossed them off their equipment, and stole it for awhile. They hopped on, and immediately sailed off.

My point: Learn to walk before you try to run. Get a hold of the biggest, widest most stable board you can find, and get a small sail. Really small. Depending on where you are you may be able to find a community sailing club that membership grants you access to equipment like this, or community ed classes at reduced rates. Some places allow you to come back and use the beginner equipment whenever you want for free after you take an all-day lesson. Even better, if you are pretty excited go somewhere where windsurfing is taught regularly, with professional instructors, good equipment and optimal conditions. You'll learn more in three days than you would learn in a three seasons on your own. {I wish I had. Sigh.]

Do not progress to other equipment until you can comfortably do a tack and jibe and can sail with your body upright, your hips in and your arms straight, and you can do a consistent beach start. Work on upwind sailing with and without the center board down (it is harder to go upwind with a really small sail, but it can be done). When you are truly bored with this rig, move to a bigger sail, but stay with the big, wide board. until you can handle the bigger sail. Then move up to an even larger sail. When you are comfortable, then move to a slightly smaller board, and go back to the smallest sail. This sounds really tedious, but doing it this way you could master in a few days what many of us spent years struggling with. [There are a lot of shortboard sailors who never mastered some of the really basic stuff, and if they went back and did this for just a day they would complete a lot more of their jibes now]

With this method and three good days you could progress through a bigger sail every few hours, and a different board each day, depending on conditions and your dedication and natural aptitude. You'll know you are ready to sail the Malibu when you can actually sail the Malibu with a smile on your face and dry hair. Once you learn to use a harness and footstraps the Malibu is a blast. It's a fun, fast longboard when you're ready for it, but can be an implement of torture when you're first learning.

Oh, and take everyone else's advice if you keep the Malibu; convert the mast track to a standard base.

[btek]

Thank you all very much for your very informative responses and links.
I will likely give the suggested Chinook base solution a try.

By the way, the Bic 250 I checked out looked just as old if not older than my current board.

I couple of follow up questions come to mind:

- Is it difficult to get the Mistral Malibu to plane? How much wind would it likely need with that 6.0m sail?

- Assuming that I can follow some of the learning advice provided, get some sailing time in on this board, and become more comfortable with windsurfing in general, what kind of an intermediate board could I potentially consider next? I am about 165-170 lbs, 5'-11" and pretty athletic. I enjoy sailing fast and am likely to sail in at least some chop (nearshore or inshore). Probably won't be doing any tricks anytime soon.

- From what I have seen so far, windsurfing in an expensive sport to experiment with. It seems that even 10-yr-old windsurfing rigs can cost upward of $500. Are there any tried and tested methods for getting used gear cheaper? Should I keep searching on craigslist/ebay, look for used demo boards at rent shops, try to buy in the offseason? Or is a major expense pretty much unavoidable for getting some decent gear?

Again, thank you for all the help so far. The support and experience available on this forum is pretty impressive.

[LeeD]

We did the 2 bolt trick in '86, when we didn't have the car parts in the shop. Most Malibu sailiors could not tell much difference in moving the track, so just set it behind center for most sailing conditions. Some guys just jam in a stick of wood on the front and back of the car, and went windsurfing.
Equipes needed a sliding track, as they actually made a difference.
Malibu was around 25" wide, so plenty stable except for you fat non athletic farts. If you need wider, just take up lounge chair TV watching.
Learning on a 85cm wide board is perfect for fat, lazy, people who will never get good at windsurfing. Yes, we teach on those boards, but try to get them down to sub 70cm boards before their 5th day.

[isobars]

Yeah, but where's Roger Jackson going to sit on a Malibu while giving lessons on the water? On those Starboard padded picnic tables he sits cross-legged on the nose facing the student, barking instructions and encouragement from three feet away. Tough to beat that form of hands-on instruction.

Mike \m/

[LeeD]

Those who can, do.
Those who never could, teach.
I've known Roger for over 20 years. He can't, so he teaches.
So who cares what he does?
He's a clone follower in all his ideas, just go on Starboard's forums and see.