End Of Season Review
What a year! If 2021 wasn’t the year of the fast board then I’m not sure what it was. The Go Race Carbon prototype certainly lived up to my expectations.
Recap
In August 2020 the seed for the Go Race Carbon was planted in Andrew’s mind and on 01 February 2021 she arrived here in Sweden. You can read about that part of the development here - from idea to water and my initial thoughts here - getting wet.
Getting the KMs done
Getting the board turned out to be the easy bit of our relationship, almost as soon as she arrived all of the accessible water near me froze solid so it was nearly a month before we could start to get to know each other. After the initial getting-used-to-the-board phase of our relationship which could be described as 'wobbly' I buckled down to do some ‘training’. Training for me was more about paddling hard than targeted sessions but as I started to think about fitness some stuff happened which influenced my entire summer in a way that impacted my paddling.
But you aren’t here to read about that so lets get back on board.
The Design
In April I noted that holding 8 km/h was pretty easy on the board, and it is. In 2019 an hour at 8 km/h was an achievement worthy of social media bragging but in 2021 it was a cruise and 8.5 became my new normal. This is in part due to some clever shaping by Andrew at the nose which is hard to describe and even harder to photograph. The bow is a displacement shape, that means that the board slices through the water and to work efficiently the bow is in the water at all times contrast that to an all-water board with a planing hull that rides over things.
Taking the displacement design further Andy designed the Go Race bow to create a trough in the water that cleverly runs down the side well past the standing point. This works with the cut away rails to reduce the wetted area of the board considerably thereby reducing drag and helping maintain high average speed. The effect is noticeable at speeds in excess of 7.5 km/h and you really feel it over 8.0 km/h. In a glide test, paddle to a given speed, stop paddling then let the board slow the deceleration when you drop below those speeds is marked, it is like putting the brakes on.
Smoother is faster
To get the hull shape to work effectively for me I have had to adopt a smoother, more fluid paddling style. Initially I was simply putting down as much power as I could which worked to a point but meant the board rocked from side to side completely ruining Andy’s design work.
Luckily for me I started to help a couple of paddlers with their technique and that made me think a lot about what I was doing, I noticed I was able to maintain higher speeds with a smoother stroke and it was then that I started to think more about working with the design, not against it. When that eureka! moment happened then paddling got a lot faster and a lot more serious.
In June I was able to tick off the first performance goal when competing in a virtual event, a 10km time trial. My course was an out and back in the northern end of the local fjord where there is little boat traffic and quiet water. On my third attempt I posted a time of one hour 6 minutes 9 seconds or fractionally under 9.1 km/h. That performance was enough to win a virtual TT here in Sweden by more than 2 minutes, a result I am very proud of. If I could have continued to work at fitness and technique I am sure I would have posted significantly faster times through the summer. But …
Features and changes
The bow and rails on the Go Race Carbon are the most important bit of the design yet they are not the things that people notice. Usually they focus on the paint job and the deflector and usually in a negative way, which is a shame. I completely agree that the chevrons are a marmite feature and while I like them I would agree 100% that they could be improved! The deflector is also a triumph of function over form, if the board ever makes it to production both will change, but not much!
The other tweaks I would recommend before production would be to reduce the weight somewhat, to flatten the standing area which currently has a slight slope to aid drainage and to widen the tail fractionally removing the hump at the back. Cosmetically sharpening up the bow would make the board 'look' faster but if that changed the way the bow works it would be a step back.
A slightly wider tail would help with pivot turns and with the boards only real weakness, when paddling in swell there is some instability when the swell is from the rear at about 30 degrees to the board. She rides remarkably well in swell from the stern up to around knee height but with a side swell I have struggled to keep upright. Heading into swell is easy, literally like a knife through butter and the deflector works perfectly!
2022 - Go Faster
With the onset of winter here in Sweden I have started to think about 2022 and setting new goals on the Go Race, The first has to be the target I failed to get in 2021, a 4km run at 10 km/h. I am sure that is possible on this board. My second target is harder, to complete the same 10km time trial course at an average speed of 9.5 km/h. I am sure the board can do this if the paddler is willing to commit to some serious training of body and mind!
Sadly there are no plans to take this shape into production, there are several reasons for this and I hope that Andy can find a solution which will enable more people to try this beast of a board. I know I am biased as this is the product of my imagination but I am sure that under a better paddler this is a race winning bit of kit.