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the catalogue #229 
1968       Gordon Woods   Tracker   8 ft  Stringerless
#229

MANUFACTURE
MANUFACTURER: Nipper Williams Surfboards, 28 Sydenham Road Brookvale NSW  93-2235
SHAPER: Unknown
DESIGN: Tracker
DESIGNER: Bob McTavish / Nat Young
SPECIFICATIONS
CONSTRUCTION
Stringerless foam blank
Volan glass with 2 inch overlap
Oval kneel patch.
  removable moulded fin and fin box.
DIMENSIONS
Length :
 7
 ft
 3
 inches
L2:
 7ft 2.5''
Width :
 21.5
 inches
Wide Point :
 +ve 6
 inches
Nose :
 17
 inches
Tail :
 14
 inches
Thickness :
 3
 inches
Pod :
 4.5
 inches
Nose Lift :
   inches
Tail Lift :
   inches
Weight :
   kilos
Volume :
   litres
Other :
   inches

 
FEATURES
Nose: semi pin
Tail:  square
Deck: rolled
Bottom:  flat - round - flat
Rails: 50/50 tending down at the tail
Rocker: light
FIN
9'' x  8'' base x 12'' span @ 10.5''
Moulded with accompanying Waveset 11.5" finbox.
  
DECOR
DECALS
Deck: 
Bottom:
Nipper Williams, 28 Sydenham Road Brookvale NSW  93-2235, black script on the nose.
MARKINGS
Deck: 
Bottom:
COLOUR
Deck: Blue laminated tint  
Bottom : Clear with 2'' blue rail overlaps.
N
Actual decal, trimmed fro the example below.

 
 
 
NOTES
BOARD HISTORY
Photographs and dimensions at Jervis Bay Maritime Museum, 10 November 2017.
MANUFACTURER HISTORY
Nipper Williams was an experienced surfer and shaper who had worked at several Brookvale factories.

DESIGN HISTORY
Following the failure of the wide-tailed Vee bottom experiment in Hawaii December1967 plan shapes became the focus of design
In early 1968 some designs merely added a pintail - the Pintail Vee bottom - see  #107
This was quickly abandoned, and as the year progressed plan shapes literally reversed to a fully foiled gun derived template.
Wide points moved dramatically forward (up to  +ve 12'') and tails narrowed, with three main variations.
Bottom features, particularly Vee, were much less extreme but  50/50 rails were retained
Many boards were stringerless, but the newly introduced coloured resin glue-line stringer was also widely used.
Volan fibreglass was an industry standard and the boards usually have identifiable laminated rail overlaps, often with deck and/or fin patches.
Fins usually were large Greenough-influenced flex fins, with advanced placement towards the nose.
The first commercially available finboxes were introduced in 1968 - WAVESET (by Morey-Pope) and SAFESET (by Fins Unlimited?) - from the USA.
These were fitted with a selection of molded plastic fins.
See Pintail #96      Roundtail  #171 and   Tracker   #108
The three models were illustrated late1968 / early 1969.
Image courtesy of Gordon Woods Archives.
Originally printed in Surfing World Volume 12 No. 1 1969.
COMMENTS
Note advanced fin placement.

REFERENCES:
Magazines
Surfing World Volume 12 No. 1 1969. See advertisement above.

Other Trackers
#108 1968   Wallace 7 ft 3" Stringerless
#69   1969  Keyo 7 ft 3'' Shaped by Bob McTavish
#67,  1969  Surf Design   7ft Shaped by Dick van Straalen

Other Gordon Woods Boards
1965 Stringerless #110
1966 Malibu #170
1967 Stringerless Wide tail  #301

CONDITION: 7.5




surfresearch.com.au
home catalogue history references appendix
Geoff Cater (2000-2017) : Catalogue : Nipper Williams Tracker, 1968.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000368.html