Customs
Juan-Daniel at Jameos-Lanzarote, photographer: Russel Groves
Since 1993 Withcraft is making custom windsurfboards on Fuerteventura. Witchcraft is famous for their innovative shapes and indestructible constructions. Our Wave Series are available on direct order or through dealers across Europe. Our Custom boards can only be ordered from Fuerteventura. If you are interested in a Custom board, have a look at the pricelist or fill in a shape inquiry , so we can talk about your perfect toy. Because we know our construction will last, we sell second-hand boards online with guarantee!
Shape
Juan-Daniel at Jameos-Lanzarote, photographer: Russel Groves
Where our Wave Series are, like any production board, always somewhat a compromise, with a Custom you will get exactly what you need/want. Any production board will always be designed to cover various sailing types and weights. A small board is a compromise between a high wind board for an average person and a medium wind board for a light person. A medium board has to work as a medium wind board but also a light or high wind board. Or a big board is a compromise between a light wind wave board or a medium wind wave board for a heavy person. And all production boards are always a compromise between easy sailing and high performance.
The range of our boards is huge, however, it is still of advantage to have this range where YOU need it.
With a customboard, you can adapt a board perfectly where you need it. The range can be adapted to any other boards you may have to build the perfect quiver. And it can be designed to sail as radical or easy as you need/want it.
As you can not test a custom board before you buy it, we garantee it will be the best board possible providing we have been given the information we need.
We do not need you to tell us how to shape it, we need to know about what you want from it. We need to know all about you, weight, heighth, shoesize, etc., which sails you want to use on the board, what your sailing level and style is, which other boards you will keep next to it, which board(s) it will replace and what you think of these boards. Then we can tell you what you can expect of the new board in relation to these boards.
We can also mail 3D previews of the board.
With our CNC system we can send 3D images of the shape from all sides, together with all details, length, width, tail and nose width, exact volume, foot strap positions, etc. etc. so you can visualize your new board before we even start making it.
Or if you would have any special ideas about the shape anything can be discussed and previewed before the board is made. Any deviations from what we think would be best, may void the garantee on satisfaction though.
Of course as the board will be build from scratch for you, also the construction can be adapted to your needs or wishes. It can be made as light or strong as you want/need. A board has to be strong enough to withstand any likely forces that may be put upon it. Remember a board does not fail when there is no wind. But on the other hand, there is no point in sailing around with excessiv weight either.
And off course, as a final personal touch, it can be painted and finished to your personal wishes. Any wish can be discussed.
Please fill in our Shape Inquiry for personal advice on Your Perfect Board.
Tech info
Customs constructions
There are 7 main constructiontypes available:
- HCD: H-glass (50%), Carbon (15%),Dyneema® (5%)-e-glass-epoxy-Single-Double-Triple sandwich. Weight: 5.6kg*. 1 year garantee**
Made with full H-glass on deck and bottom, overlapping on the rails. - CBC: Custom layed up Biaxial Carbon (45%) + Quadaxial-e-glass- Dyneema (8%)- epoxy-Single-Double-Triple sandwich. Weight: 5.3kg*. 1 year garantee**
Made with Aviation grade carbon UD, custom layed up to build a bi directional carbon with an optimized fibre orientation on deck and bottom, overlapping on the rails. The nose and tail area are made with quad-axial high grade e-glass for better flex and impact properties as with full carbon. - FCBC: Full Custom layed up Biaxial Carbon (80%), Dyneema (8%) epoxy-Single-Double- sandwich. Weight: 4.6kg*. 1 year garantee**
Made with full 1K Carbon-Kevlar on deck and bottom, overlapping on the rails. Similar as the CBC but now the carbon is continued over nose and tail both on bottom and deck, making the board extremely light but also stiff and more fragile for impact. Glass reinforments on the nose. - HDD: (Heavy Duty) Dyneema® (65%)-Carbon (17%)-glass-epoxy-single-double-triple-secret-sandwich. Our famous Heavy Duty Dyneema® construction with 18 months garantee**. Weight: 5.7kg*.
Made with full Dyneema® on deck and bottom, overlapping on the rails. - LD: (Light) Dyneema®-(50%)-Carbon 12%-glass-epoxy-single-double sandwich. Our light Dyneema constructions for those who want to combine a light board with impact resistence at the sacrifice of less structural strength as the HDD. Weight 5.3kg*
1 year guarantee** - XHDD: (Extra Heavy Duty) Dyneema® (70%)-Carbon (20%)-e-glass-epoxy-single-double-triple-secret-sandwich. Our notorious Extra Heavy Duty Dyneema® construction with 2 years garantee**. Weight: 5.9kg*.
Made with full Dyneema® on deck and bottom, overlapping on the rails.
*Weight quote based on a 70L singlefin waveboard, +/-4%, for different boardsizes add or take approx. 8% for every 10L. The trifin system adds about 250-300 gr. to the tail so centre of gravity moves back.
**Conditions apply
As the boards are custombuild also a mix of constructions is possible.
More info
No sacrifice of quality
As a construction is only as strong as its weakest component, Witchcraft also uses the highest quality sandwich materials and resin. No sacrifice of quality is made in favor of costs or ease of work.
Sandwich
Each board is vacuum-bagged 4 times. Apart from the XLCK construction a special method is used to bond the sandwich material. This makes delaminating very hard and therefore there is no more need for an air valve, which is usually a source for problems. Every board gets baked at 60°C, for the XLCK and LD version with the air valve closed to test for delamination.
We have tried full double sandwich, but we have found that the extra resin, needed to bond the sandwich to each other, is heavier than the weight saved. The only advantage is for the producer because 2 thin layers are easier to bend and therefore a cheaper and more brittle sandwich can be used. (This is something some companies don't mention in their advertising, is it?)
We use sandwich materials, which are specially developed for dynamic loads, in one thicker layer of sandwich so the board will be stronger all over. Only in the necessary areas we use double or triple of our thicker sandwich. To illustrate how efficient a sandwich construction works is to use the physical law that the stiffness of a sandwich construction goes up with nearly the 3rd exponent of the thickness. So to increase the sandwich thickness from 4 to 5mm means it becomes 90% more rigid against flex (going spongy) where it only costs 8% extra weight as the laminates stay the same. This does not influence the flex of the board as a whole.
We also taper the sandwich towards the nose again to reduce weight and "swing-weight".
And we use various types of sandwich for the various areas for more impact or pressure resistence, depending on the area.
About H-glass
H-glass is a new patented microscopically hollow glass fibre. It is 40% lighter and 32% more pressure resistent (against creasing, usually the reason for board breakage) than traditional e-glass. H-glass based composites also serve as a very efficient shock absorber. A very good alternative for Dyneema, especially for spots without rocks. Another first from Witchcraft.
About Carbon-Kevlar (replaced by Carbon UD)
Carbon-Kevlar is fairly stiff and pressure resistent due to the carbon so a lighter inner build up of materials can be used. Pure carbon would be too stiff and uncomfortable for waveboards and pure kevlar too flexible. The Kevlar helps to reduce damage on impacts. On overloads the 50% carbon, because it is much stiffer than the 50% Kevlar, will take on most of the forces and can break easier as there is only 50%. Therefore this material is more suitable for sailors with a "controlled" sailing style.
1K Carbon-Kevlar is a very fine special fabric usually used for model building with finer but much more expensive 1K Carbon fibres.
About carbon UD
Unidirectional non crimp fabric, lying absolutely flat, almost 100 % utilisation of fibre properties, above all considerably higher compressive strength than carbon fabric, higher fibre content possible. For max rigidity values and excellent tensile and compressive strengths. As we use carbon UD to custom lay up bi directional carbon, fibreorientation can be optimized over standard bi axial carbon.
About Dyneema
Since 1994, under the tough demands of the conditions on Fuerte, Witchcraft started using Dyneema® fibre as the main fibre in their boards. Dyneema* is the strongest fibre on the market. It is very light, even lighter than water but has a very high tenacity and energy absorption. Still it is stiffer than Kevlar and glass fibre, being slightly more flexible than carbon. It also has a long flex life and is not brittle as carbon or glass.
Comparison of technical properties of different fibres used in windsurfboards:
|
|
Density |
strength |
energy required for penetration |
|
|
gr/cm³ |
N/Tex |
Jm²/kg |
|
Carbon |
1.78 |
1.9 |
1 |
|
Glass |
2.60 |
1.35 |
2 |
|
Aramid (kevlar) |
1.45 |
2.05 |
6.5 |
|
Dyneema®* |
0.97 |
3.1 |
12.5 |
*) DSM's registered trademark for High Performance Polyethylene Fiber
Apart from the price, the problem with Dyneema is that it is hard to work with , hard to cut,to sand and to laminate. It requires high quality workmanship, since irregularities cannot be corrected afterwards.
Because of the Dyneema it is nearly impossible to puncture the board. On impact there may be a dent which can be heated out with a hairdryer or hot air gun, since the sandwich material we use has memory and returns to it's original shape over 70° C. On heavy impacts, the thin layer of glass fibre covering the Dyneema for the finish, may crack, the Dyneema will usually still be intact to stop water penetrating the board. With a bit of superglue on the Dyneema, any hair crack can be sealed.
We have also developed various secret construction "tricks" on the inside, to make boards stronger and to prevent a board becoming tired, that are quite simple but very effective (sorry, no "T", "delta" stringers, wood or other "reinforcements"). But, as we don't want to reveal too much here, you'll have to take our word for it and let our guarantee conditions convince you.
All this results in a superior board with the highest strength to weight ratio possible, truly ``Witchcraft``
Boardpics
These are some of the boards we have made.
Boardpics
These are some of the boards we have made. At the moment we have 165 board pictures on this website.
On this page board 106 to 112
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Pricelist
This is a pricelist that calculates! Pick your options and press 
or 
Shape Inquiry for Custom boards
To know more about what we can do with a board, custom built especially for you, please click here
On the right is a questionary for the details we need to discuss with you which shape and construction is best for you. To get it exactly right we need as much info as you can give us, boards you own or have owned and what you thought of it, what you would like most to have improved, etc.
