Plastic Fantastics

With all of this heat around, could it be bad for all these new fangled plastic boats i.e Vago, Omega, etc. Could the heat cause them to expand and deform?

Certainly polyethelene windsurfers can bend in the sun. We still have the original Windsurfer racing as a class down here in Oz, and we heat them in the sun with black plastic bags to adjust rocker according to the conditions.

If some modern board had that ability, you can get they'd call it "Vari-rocker" or something, write pages about how it helped performance, and charge a premium!

Do people adjust the shape of Toppers in the same way????

We could always ask feva_kid to go on a mission and investigate at length the adverse effects of the 45ºC he's enduring on his favourite Feva. I'd be happy to donate water bottles and suncream, just for him to step outside and have a break from the forum.

I have no idea why they have come up with this current craze for plastic boats they are awful. Find the pico, topper and other with a free standing mast are fine but who decided to put strouds on a plastic boat they are awful.  Did anyone tell them plastic flexes!!!!

For the last 2 years Ive worked abroard in two differnt centres in hot weather on both occasions we had fevas out of 20 in both centres over 10 split in the stern either below the bottom gudgen or where the stern is narrowest for the self draining cockpit.  as well as this the masts filled up with mud (not cap on top of mast) so were inherently unstable (even when the hulls did not fill with water due to the splits in them) and the sailed lasted all of about 3 weeks before falling to bits .  I spend ages fixing them wit lots of silcon sealant and stainless steel plates trying to stop the flexing. Fevas and other plastic boats are with shrouds are the worst idea in a long time.

Pico's and Topaz's seem to survive OK at sailing centres in the med, it's the windsurfing sails that really get it. Sunsail's policy of not having covers for their high performance boats is questionable though!