There is a thread about this subject on the starboard forum with some comments from a 3rd party (non starboard) observer:
starboard forum prodigy thread My 0.02 cents? The two boards were designed with totally different objectives. The Prodigy was an attempt by mistral to "save" the imco, freezing the design for four years..its easy to understand why because the IMCO monopoly obviously is very important to them. Its not achieved that, so in order to compete with the START etc, mistral launched the trance, which is itself a dated design.
The START is half the price of the prodigy and my take is the construction is way stronger...but then don't forget i'm a starboard person. There is also some very useful training video etc that comes with the START. If you can, sail them both. We will have a 2004 START on demo soon.
You might want to check out the online learning manual for the start, lots of useful tips. Navigation bar is at the top of the page and covers all the basic techniques need. The page is at :
Starboard START Teaching guide Look at the tips for setting the footstraps especially, that will give you an idea of how the board was designed to be used as a teaching tool.
