I am an intermediate windsurfer who is hoping, within the next 12 months to make the leap from boards that float me to sinkers. I bought a Techno 273 in August 2000 and I have been blessed with good winds since then. I have been sailing it with a 6.8 BIC Logic freeride sail and a 5.5 Tushingham ... Read review
Advantages: Nice when planing. Disadvantages: Nose breaks off too easily & BIC customer relations are very poor.
...sailing it with a 6.8 BIC Logic freeride sail and a 5.5 Tushingham Storm sail in winds up to force 5.
It's an OK board as soon as you get it planing, its responsive and you can throw it into aggressive moves and it is quite forgiving. In winds that are not strong enough to get the board planing it is slow, it would be better to find a board with more volume for these conditions.
My major problem, with this otherwise ... ...Wittering, UK) and they say BIC are not accepting any responsibility for what is in essense a bad design fault, worse than that, the shop owner had just come back from a windsurfing trade show where BIC retailers were asking the company what they are going to do about the problem. BIC acknowledged the fault but said they are not admitting liability and next years models are using the same nose design !
I am an intermediate windsurfer who is hoping, within the next 12 months to make the leap from boards that float me to sinkers. I bought a Techno 273 in August 2000 and I have been blessed with good winds since then. I have been sailing it with a 6.8 BIC Logic freeride sail and a 5.5 Tushingham Storm sail in winds up to force 5.
It's an OK board as soon as you get it planing, its responsive and you can throw it into aggressive moves and it is quite forgiving. In winds that are not strong enough to get the board planing it is slow, it would be better to find a board with more volume for these conditions.
My major problem, with this otherwise pretty good board, is that the nose on mine has split and it has cost me £90 ($140 approx) to get it fixed. I thought that it was my fault as a progressing windsurfer going out in stronger winds but I have met at least 10 other windsurfers who have had the same problem with the 273 and the other Techno's. It was the end of the boom hitting the board that did it, and yes, I was using a maui magic boom protector. It appears the nose is not strong enough to stand up to the standard kind of beating that a progressing windsurfer will give it, and the board was less than one month old at the time.
I took the board back to my retailer (Shore Water Sports, East Wittering, UK) and they say BIC are not accepting any responsibility for what is in essense a bad design fault, worse than that, the shop owner had just come back from a windsurfing trade show where BIC retailers were asking the company what they are going to do about the problem. BIC acknowledged the fault but said they are not admitting liability and next years models are using the same nose design !
The moral of the story is : the Techno 273 is an OK board, but only buy one if you are sure the end of your boom will never hit the nose. My advise - try one of StarBoards windsurfer boards (the "GO" is excellent) instead.
After breaking the nose for the fourth time I finally had enough and part exchanged the techno in for a Mistral Flow which is a much better board - look out for my review on it. ***********************************************************
