I learnt to windsurf on a Dufour Wing. Aside from the wonderful glide that got me hooked on this sport, I remember the rounded hull, the deck scoops, the sharp tail and the 2 position mast foot.

Looking back now, I really don't know the story of this board and where it fits into the history of longboard sailing. Can anyone comment?

I'll risk my 2 cents.

Early 80's stuff rather than mid-, pre-dates the buyout by Bic when the Dufour line disappeared. Basically scurvy was still making headlines then, Wally Lewis was under-18 me recall (if you're an Aussie), and Madonna may or may not still have been virgin.

I vaguely remember the 2-position mast step with the little holies. That board was a fair clip on beam reach, and hopeless on upwind and downwind, reason being probably the rounded hull - you couldn't rail it to point upwind, and the dagger board was too low in area.

Finally, was a goner for freestyle. Couldn't rail it: sharp edges. And it would rock sideways on sail and body tricks.

I have that exact board! It is a red and white dufour wing (white board with red trim, fin, and maststeps). I was given the board by a family friend and fellow windsurfing fanatic Cam Dell. It's two maststeps are large holes as someone said. I admit that I don't actually sail it as I couldn't find a maststep to go in the recievers. I do paddle it around like a kayak and use it as a rescue boat for saving the people that I am training to windsurf on my other boards. It's hull is extremely rounded with no rails so it is tippy and I imagine it would not be great for sailing. Anyway its windsurfing days are over but it is still used every couple days in the summer. I have included a picture of it with my other boards and I can take some more pictures of it if you would like.

Ps: I think it is really old like seventies stuff although I am not sure

Ah ! The Dufour Wing !
The windsurf revolution of 1979 !

It has been presented in january 1979 at the Salon Nautique.
What a blast. For 2500 francs, a complete windsurf set, and a good one.
30% to 50% cheaper than other brands.
12000 sold the first year. Boom !

A good friend of mine had one this 1979 summer (bought by his father). I remember a fast but unstable board, and we were not total beginners, the saber daggerboard, the rectangular section of the boom. The original colors were black and white.
The deck was so abrasive it damaged the sails (and the sailers...). All the same sail, orange and red, with no batten, 5,40 m2 I think, Pryde.

When I went to the shop with my father, they were all sold, and no hope to have one this summer. So he bought a more expensive Sailboard Delta 79. It is still gathering dust in our hollydays house in Brittany...

Bought our BIC Dufour Wing in 1982 700 USD complete. Still have it and use it on virtually every trip to the beach, anchored as a kids play platform or paddled, virtually never sailed. Round bottomed and heavy it is and at about 180 L of displacement has always been a bit on the small side for me. That said, I learned to windsurf on it, started out paddleing, even SUPed it with the mast, before rigging and attaching the sail.

The ONLY board that I've sailed to this day that has better light wind glide is the Serenity. IMO the biggest drawback the Wing had (has) was (is) it's fin which is a little red flexible thingy. For displacement sailing the hull shape is fundamentally sound (that Dufour pedigree) about halfway to a Div 2 but friendlier. Lighten it up, add little more volume i.e. fill in the scooped out areas, add standard fin/mast boxes and a good centerboard and it would be a fine light air hull. Actually this chain of thought makes me think I should check out the new BIC Jungle.

From my memory the rounded hull was what made them so good up wind. I had a wally in the early 80s and in mixed fleets the dufours seemed to have an advantage upwind. all the good division one boards had that semi deplacement hull.

I went from the wally to a div 2, now they were a beast down wind in a breeze.

As a 13 year old boy I have fond memories of the dufour ads in the early mags.

nev

I remember that ad!

I did a Dufour Nationals about '82. I agree, it was quicker in light winds than the Windsurfer, but a bit tricky to sail in chop and not exactly a freestyle weapon.

It claimed to be the biggest-selling board in the world for years - 120,000 sold in a few years? I've got the info somewhere.

The Bic Wing was my first board. I bought it at the end of 1983 for 500 Dutch guilders at OZO in Andelst The Netherlands. I had to wait almost 5 months to have my first sail on it because it was a long and hard winter.

I remember the long mast, sail with red screen and the boom that was attached to the mast with a piece of rope with a knot. Just remove the boom after sailing and roll the sail around the mast. I always laughed at the guys with the battens...

The board has the red rail and the daggerboard could be tilted but not possible to retract fully without pulling it from the board completely.

Used it just for learning and fun, but even did some school races on it. What I remember most is the big spray that would fly around when you would get some wind and get it up to some sort of speed ;-).

What fun it was just to take my bike and a trolley and bike to the water and having a great time out on the water.

I was a dealer for Dufour, Sailboard and Crit, in the Caribean. We organized in 1979, the (3rd or 4th?) world OPEN championship with more than 100 competitors.
The other brands participating were: Hi Fly, Windglider, Oceanite, Sainval, Ten Cate, Mistral, Pen Duick and Magnum (empty boards, without foam)... sorry if I forgot some...
The Dufour wing were nicely competitives, with a very strong team of top class French racers.
They were ranked between 5th to 10th at the upwind mark, and gaining few places on the reaches, and downwind.
I hope I don't mistake: I remind that, finaly, Windglider and Oceanite was in front, the first Dufour made 3rd.
For this race, the Dufour boards were as light as possible (18 to 19 kgs instead of the standard 21/22 kgs), and to improve the performance in the sea conditions (3 to 6 feet waves) the boards had more scoop and lift obtained by two cuts, side to side of the deck just in rear of the daggerboard hole.
These two cuts were strongly stiched and glued, leaving two scares on the deck...
This gain in rear lift had also the effect to reduce the break effect due of the lack of rigidity of that ABS construction...
The only other improvement of these competition boards was a specific fiber or wood daggerboard, and of course the best rigs and sails available.
No one, in any team, had the idea to work on the skegs...big mistake!

Sorry for my bad english!

I believe at the time Dufour was a distinct brand. Bic bought them around 1982, right? To make a single brand out of the two. I vaguely recall that Ken Winner (top sailor at the time) was the main figure for Dufour at the time.

Man, everything you describe is the early 80s version of what we have now: board will be 2 ounces lighter in 2009, more sails, multiple fins for 'performance', etc. I thought this lets-get-the-latest trend started 1982-83 mostly.

Anyhow, that was history then. And the rest is history.

I had an original Dufour wing with the black plastic trim and the pinhead sail with the funny logo. That board was good to windward from recollection, but would have been better with a longer skeg and rigid dagger board. That plastic dagger board flexed a lot. The one thing that sucked were the rectangular tubed aluminum booms. They were a noodle and left you with the worst blisters. The BIC version had oval tubes and the grip was a bit better.