Mark,

I don't think anyone has replied to your inquiry yet,
so I'll put in my two cents.

There really is alot of good used equipment out there.
I should know, I own most of it......
And I'll sell it really cheap----

: ^ )

That being said, for the bay sailing over here that you'll
be doing, I think that you'd be better served buying good
NEW equipment. The difference between learning on an
old Fanatic Fox or Mistral one design longboard
and the new wide boards is amazing. My brother learned
in an 1/2 hour on a Starboard Start--I couldn't believe it--

As a matter of fact, I was a little resentful that he and my
whippersnapper nephew didn't have to go through all the
hardship that I went through so long ago!

"When I was your age, I had to walk twenty miles through ten
feet of snow in my BARE feet to learn to windsurf"

So at any rate, for the price it really would be hard to go wrong with
Starboard Start, as matter of fact, it's a board that you could
always
keep in your arsenal, to teach family and friends with.

I'm intrigued by the Mistral Prodigy, while I've never sailed it,
when I saw it in the Windsurf mag board test I was impressed, when
you examine the stats, you find that, it's almost as wide as the
Start, almost 20 centimeters longer, and it actually has a
retractable centerboard and moveable (sp?) masttrack.
I feel that it's a safe bet to say that staying upwind shouldn't be a
problem for a beginner. With the Start that's not always so. The
daggerboard should more than makeup for the decreased width of around
13 centimeters. The good thing about the Mistral Prodigy would be
that, it would be THE board for the conditions you'll see MOST of the
time up in Bethany. I guess it all depends on how much you want to
spend. You couldn't really go wrong either way.

Best of Luck, let me know what you decide!

Joe