Thanks Ady and Doug.
I do have a nice 95 wave board I use on the bigger days. I can put a 6.3 on it but if it is not so good in the holes at my weight. I really like the firemove but I also really like buying a lot of boards (according to my wife anyway!) .
The Starship does look like a nice bump and jump for some of our conditions on lake huron.
My firemove is great board - the thin rails really make it easy to sail, jibe and keep it really smooth in wavy waters.
I think my next upgrade would be down to the 75 cm wide firemove 110 (or other brand equivalents) which is not quite as wide and should hopefully still work well with an 8.0.
Joe

I can certainly drow parallels between my situation and yours-I have a freemove 110 L Atomiq and a freewave 86 L Kode boards and my problem sail size is the 5.8 one for the same reasons you mentioned for your 6.3. There are lots of differences as well though-like im lighter then you at ~167 lbs , my biggest sail is 7.5 and I windsurf a lot /wind direction factor/ on a small lake , where it is much more gusty compared to lake Michigan and the 86 is close to useless there. So my line of thought is: if I win the lottery one day I'll replace the 86 with a 94 to get more flotation for the 5.8 and even the 5.2 and maybe add a lower 80s multifin wave board for the 4.6 and 4.2 . I had only one session with my 86/4.2 combo and it was crazy and realy scary in the 40mph gusts. As for the 110 Atomiq which I love with 7.5 and 6.5 , i have no complains so far, besides that Im forced to sail it with the 5.8 on the small lake when it is too windy for the bigger sails. I must confess that I have toyed with the idea of replacing it with a 100L board but only when I decide to ditch the 7.5 also, which is not going to happen any time soon because I dont want to compromise the 10-18mph days which I still like for slalom stile burn&turn.

I think your Atom 110 and 86l Kode is a good combo. I ride my Firemove 120 with the 8.0/6.3 but have ridden it with a 5.2 with good success. I find the thin free moves are incredibly easy to sail in wavy water (they do bang around quite a a bit in chop - hence the question regarding the naish starship). I would sail your atom down to 5.8 on the small lake and then use your kode on the big water.
If your Kode has a multiline option (I have a Simmer fsw and it has 5 slot boxes) try the thruster/quad option in higher winds. It will really settle the board down (and it slows it down which I like in the waves).
Joe

Hey Joe, have you considered adding a 7.0 Cheetah to your quiver? The already significant gap between 8.0 and 6.3 is made even more apparent by the diference in the type of the sails you have /presuming the 6.3 is a wave sail/. Freerace sails have their draft farther back, making them better suited to wide boards with outboard footstraps placing you on the rail in a locked position. Wave sails with a draft farther forward tend to place you more over the board preferring narower width board and a single back footstrap. I wouldn't be surprised if you feel uncomfortable while sailing the 120/6.3 combo and having a tendency to oversheet on top of that. I would suggest 8.0 /or 8.5/ and 7.0 Freerace sails for the 120 Freemove-pure blasting joy ; 6.3 and 5.7 powerwave sails for a future 105 crossover board -bump&jump and whatnot- and 2 or 3 smaller 4 batten wave sails and 80 - something allround wave board -for wave riding and crazy wind conditions-eventually.
Of Course our aspirations and needs may vary wildly and many times what we think that we need is very diferent from what we realy need ,so take my suggestions like just one option out of many .
PS: just realised how badly I hijacked this tread-I guess, I got overexcited for having a discussion finally. I apologize!

Joe,

Not sure where you are with a board for your 8.0 but, I just found a listing (from Shell Point, FL) for a a Starboard Aero 117, wood. Looks pretty nice. Not sure of the year, may have to contact the seller, but the Aero boards appear unchanged from 2005 to 2006. And, the price is fairly attractive,... depending:

www.20knotsnob.com/forsale/index.cfm

2006.star-board.com/products/aero.asp

Also, the iwindsurf.com site is starting to react to the Naish Starship with several emerging comments. I did a search on "Starship" and had the following hits:

www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t...dbe5aee63e6bb2f3cb59

www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t...dbe5aee63e6bb2f3cb59

Design Notes:
www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t...dbe5aee63e6bb2f3cb59

doug