Starboard

Board and foil brand, covered through Tiesda You (Ep 110) in a technical chat spanning software optimisation of foils, starting a non-athlete career in the industry, the potential disruption of AI, and Starboard’s Universal Connection System (UCS) for Masts.

Ep 110 (2025-06-17) — full detail

Foils are run as a separate, license-branded company, Starboard Foils, spun off in 2017 by Tiesda You (with founder Svein reportedly sceptical at first that foils weren’t niche); it has its own supplier network (Tiesda evaluated the Cobra factory in Thailand, which also builds Starboard’s own boards, among other candidates) rather than relying on Starboard’s manufacturing directly.

Design/optimisation split by discipline: windsurf boards led by Redmay, wing/SUP/tow boards by Trevor and Oly — still shaped “the classical way,” unlike foils, which since ~2023 have used a computer optimisation process (with Martin Fisher) marketed as “7000X” (~7000 convergence iterations against real-world race/wind/structural parameters). Carbon construction uses “FCC” for both foam-core (lighter/cheaper) and solid-core (stiffer/thinner, used where parts are too thin for foam — e.g. racing wings and masts) builds; racing masts are graded by carbon modulus (C400 ≈ high modulus/400 GPa, C600 ≈ ultra-high modulus/600 GPa).

Starboard’s Universal Connection System (UCS), designed by Tiesda, replaces Starboard’s older saddle (front/tail wing) and socket (mast) connections with a saddle-plus-sleeve wing joint and a four-bolt saddle mast joint, released as an open/free, USB-C-inspired standard (downloadable 3D files, optional “Works with UCS” branding) that other brands are reportedly investigating adopting. Windsurf foiling remains “a big part of the agenda,” including dedicated beginner foils, fed by a racing-down trickle-down development pipeline. (Ep 110)