Sunday, May 12, 2013

New New Old Formula Board- Bic FV.12



Here's a video of a typical Florida Gulf Coast Windsurfing session. It's a "windy" 9-12 knot day, providing planing conditions for my formula board with a 9.5 sail. The music in the video is by the Cure and by the Strokes.

Old Bic Formula Board Sesh in Bonita Springs, FL from James Douglass on Vimeo.

12 comments:

joe windsurfer said...

My understanding is : this board, BIC Formula FV 1.2 is from about 2001.
It is 160 liters and 267x87.5 cm with 62 cm OFO - deep tuttle 60 cm fin
As you are lighter than I, this board should do for you what my BIC Techno
Formula does for me - early planing in light breezes with little input or
pumping required ie FUN with lotsa TOW in light wind areas = ENJOY !!
Definitely believe this is a better fit than the previous "Formula" ...

Frank said...

I had a Bic FV 1.2 which the Prichard called a 90. Mine was blue and white. This must be a latter model. Wished I had never sold it. Traded It for a Starboard 147 that I could never ride with an 11.5. Have fun on the Bic they turned more like a slalom than a Formula.
They were designed by Mikes Lab in San Fransico.

James Douglass said...

Joe- Yep, that sounds like my board. I tried the 60 cm stock fin and wasn't crazy about it. For its size it didn't have very good low-end or upwind angle, and it spun out easily. I'm using a 58 cm finworks now, which I like better.

Frank- Interesting. I haven't tried anything bigger than 9.5 on the FV 1.2. It has the volume to support a big sail, but I would have thought it didn't have enough width in the tail.

Stu said...

Wow, you get that thing going really good for 9-12kt wind. I know it's formula and all but still. What sort of sail would I need to get going like that I am 6'3" 200lbs?

Frank said...

Hi James, Kevin Pritchard won a formula world championship on that board in Brazil I think with a 12 meter!
When you import your video to your Mac do you change the format for editing? The camera I used imports in AVI witch opens Quicktime. I can watch the video but no edit it.
Thamks
Frank

James Douglass said...

Stu- I wasn't planing the whole time, but I cut the bad parts out of the video. At 75 kgs I can definitely plane in 10 knots with the 9.5, but I won't claim I can plane in 9 knots. You'd want at least an 11.0 to plane in the same conditions. Good luck!

Frank- Cool! I vaguely remember now that Pritchard used to ride for Bic.

When I import video, I do it from within iMovie by starting iMovie, then plugging in the camera, then selecting "import from camera" in the iMovie menu.

Unknown said...

A Forest by The Cure in a windsurf video?

Andres said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Andres said...

Hello, good video! I just bought the Bic fv-1 and really is very light and is very fast. But the only video I've seen from this board is that of James. Could you recommend some links of the Fv-1? Thank you!

James Douglass said...

Hi Andres- I'm sorry, I don't know of anywhere else to get information on the board. It will probably take some pretty serious searching to find information on it since it's so old now. Good luck! -James

joe windsurfer said...

video is gone
dude what ya doin to me :-)

James Douglass said...

Hey Joe- Vimeo deleted my account and all my videos because of the unlicensed music in them. I still have some on my hard drive so I may republish them without music.