Spun OUT!

The song for yesterday is "You spin my head right round".



Here it was finally, race day. An event I had been waiting for for 18 months! (Couldn't make the ECWF 09 in June due to certain circumstances). The forecast called for the wind to spin up throughout the day, which would bad for me considering my jibing situation as chronicled ad nauseum here. I decided to get to the beach (West Neck - near where I grew up and we would be sailing in Cold Spring Harbor where I first learned to sail when I was 8, so I'd have an advantage, right? NOT) early to get rigged and maybe spend a little time on the water before the racing. The skipper's meeting was scheduled for 10 AM and first race at 10:30, so I got to ol' WN at around quarter after 8.

Happiness! The wind around this time was light so maybe there would be time to get one course race in before the wind really showed up, or maybe the forecast was wrong and the wind wouldn't arrive until much later. So, I rigged up the 7.5 and the 6.9. First mistake here. As Andy said at the race clinic a couple of weeks ago, make sure you do what you always do. I have learned, and re-learned, this lesson many, many times in the past, but I feel like I make this mistake too often on the day of a competition (of any kind). I hadn't used this 6.9 since the late spring. I forgot that the mast I use for it is the same one I use for the 7.5. So, I had to use the 490 mast for the 7.5 (never rigged on that mast before), so I could rig the 6.9. Anyway, got it rigged and went out for a sail on the Pacer with the 7.5. Tried to plane, not yet, so put the board down, masttrack forward, and went upwind. Felt good, a couple tacks, ready for racing. Then, fell on both jibes. WHAT?? I never fall when I jibe the Pacer, what the heck?

Came in. Hopefully I'd work out the jibe problems during the first course race. But then, the skipper's meeting got delayed and delayed. I was annoyed. But, to the race director's credit, I am sure that he was waiting for the wind that he and ALL the OTHER windsurfers knew would provide for awesome slalom racing. Just not for me. Well, the wind finally did spin up and for the first 3 races, I figured the 133 board and 6.9 sail would be a fast combo.  And it was. I'd do my best to hang on.  Problem is, the sailor has more to do with speed than the equipment. Before the first race, I sailed the course. Got to the mark, got around it without falling but had to uphaul, sailed back to beach, no problem, I can do this.

First race starts. Oh, I'm doing okay, not last. Catching up a bit. (I always start last when they do these starts where you have to run in to the water carrying your gear. The others run. I walk. Wet rocks and everything. Don't want to slip. Wish we could start already in the water). Anyway, almost halfway across, still up. Picking up speed. Looking back to see who's behind me. Dooosh. Catapault. Now, I am in last. Get up, sail to mark. Carnage at mark. Good, maybe I can pass a couple people. Go into jibe. Doooosh. Get up. Ok, just finish. Halfway back, can't get into harness lines on port jibe. Line is twisted. I hardly ever use this boom because of this. Need to get new harness lines (Ordered 'em already). Dooosh. Catapault again.

The next race went a bit better, but still couldn't get hooked in on port jibe. The 3rd race started out to be my best. Was flying, moved up into the main pack by the mark, so I do have the speed.  Even passed Bob M. on this leg, who finished like 5th overall or something for the whole event, but then, he can jibe. Then, doooosh, at the mark. Got up, and sailed back not harnessed in, but at least finished. I was finished. Three runs across the bay without harness with 6.9 in almost 20 knot winds, too much for me. So, I watched and rested. Man, some of these guys (and gals) are fast. Sasha's wife was amazingly fast. Third in one race.

However, did meet some nice people. Ned C, who was the second one who showed up, came from the Hudson Valley and is a super stoked older windsurfer like myself. His wife seemed nice too. ( Might want to get one of those for myself sometime in the not so distant future.)

It was a nice sailing day, so I rigged up the 6.3 and went out on the 133 for a couple runs. Then on the 102 the rest of the day. But, I was tired from the non-harness runs, so gave it up after a while. The wind kept spinning up and the 6.3 was a bit much at times, but it was fun. Almost, but didn't quite make a jibe all day. Need to change mind set on this and try something else, like switching feet after rotating sail. Need to watch Peter Hart alot again.

Lesson: Don't try to race on equipment you are unfamiliar with. Murphy's Law will always catch up with you. On my trial run, I was able to get hooked in on port jibe, but during the actual races was not able to hook in port. That harness line is seriously kinked/twisted. Never using that manufacturer again. My other harness lines just ALWAYS hang straight, so ordered another set of those.

Problem: Spin out. The last few times I have gone sailing, I have been having this problem. Am I pushing on the fin too hard? I know spin out is caused by air mixing into the flow around the fin and disturbing it and causing ventilation/cavitation which then cause the fin to be surrounded by air and it loses "grip" and the board goes sideways. But, why is that happening to me? Different boards, different sails, different fins. Obviously, I am not doing something right. I need some guidance here.

Feeling good about:
 1. The fact that I am now going fast enough where this stuff happens. Also, I am (more and more) going fast enough that I can feel myself skimming along the tops of waves and just going fast. Too much fun.

2. This was, after all, my first attempt at a real planing slalom race. I managed to finish ahead of 3 people for the event. (No idea how that happened.) So, nowhere to go but up. It is really cool and fun, just need to relax and just sail.

Well, that's my story, if anyone has any thoughts as to why I am spinning out so much, please let me know, I'd like to hear them. I think I might try discussing this with Peter Hart too. I think he has a section on this on his DVD.

Till the next time (which might not be for a while)

Fun, but then some disappointment

Today's song is "Vahevala" by Loggins & Messina (thanks to the PeconicPuffin.com for showing the way to using youtube videos for blog theme songs) because I was out there semi-ripping, and learning alot, today.




So, on to today. I wonder if anybody else gets the slightly sick, about to have a heart attack, having a stroke, can't get there soon enough feeling in their brains when you know the wind is blowing and you are just leaving work around 2:30 and the beach is a half hour away? Please let me know I am not alone.

Anyway, so I got to Heck around 3, in the water by 3:30 or so, 5.5/102.  Had some great fun sailing for about 2 hours, I guess, no made jibes, some disappointment. BUT, I feel like I am really learning alot. I can now tell a real difference with the boom at slightly different heights, harness line placement/ length, sail tuning, fin choice, etc. At times I feel like I am getting (almost) the max speed out of the board, by just keeping legs as straight as possible (very difficult in the chop at Heck), getting in the "7" position and hanging my weight on the boom. I can just about keep up with most everybody (nobody could keep up with the dude on the RRD X-Fire 112 slalom race board today, that thing was just too much. It made a whistling noise like a jet as it went through the water. Obviously, its pilot is no slouch, but that board was just too cool - someday).

I also found out what its like when your footstraps are too loose. I had set them up loose to make it "easier" for me to get into them, but today I fell off the back of the board when trying to go  max. speed waaaaay downwind, and my front foot got twisted in the strap, and didn't come out. So, there I was lying in the water with my right foot up on the board twisted and stuck in the strap. I will admit I almost panicked. I couldn't get my body up to the same level as the top of the board to flatten out the foot and get it out of the strap. And for a minute (actually less than a second, I hope) I thought I wasn't going to be able to keep my head out of the water for very long. I did notice a guy jibe just outside of me and actually yelled "HELP" once or twice. Actually, it was probably a blessing in the long run that he didn't hear me or didn't respond as it forced me to calm down and take stock of the situation. I ended up sliding my foot partway out of the bootie, and that freed my foot. It hurt a bit for a little while, but all is ok now. I sailed in and immediately tightened up my footstraps so that only my toes go all the through. That felt much better.

Jibes. Jibes. Jibes. One day, I hope, I will be able to do them somewhat reliably and hopefully laugh at this period of my windsurfing career. Then I will reward myself with a Mike's Lab and/or Rogue Wave custom board or two.  I hope. Anyway, since I haven't had much real success with them (except sporadically), I decided to try a different approach at some point today. I practiced releasing the sail BEFORE I switch my feet. I was able to carve through turns, get the sail to rotate, but failed to grab the boom on the other side and my feet seem somewhat glued to the board. Will have to work on this.

Some disappointment. After sailing today, I pulled out the Pacer and removed the c/b and plates to clean them all up and McLube 'em so the c/b goes up and down easily. When I got home I used lemon juice to remove the brown stuff that gets on boards at Heck. I also replaced the boom tail lines on my two larger booms with the adjustable outhaul systems with the 3mm Amsteel stuff. I did all this in anticipation of the races tomorrow, which are going to be at West Neck Beach, right in Cold Spring Harbor where I grew up sailing and first learned to sail boats (at age 8)  and my first forays into windsurfing 20 something years ago. (I stopped windsurfing for almost 20 years then took it up again 3 or 4 years ago). At least the Pacer is ready for the spring, however, it looks like good conditions for Pacer sailing on Sunday.

The wind forecast is for like 20 mph winds with higher gusts at times. All the other windsurfers are probably very excited, but I am somewhat disappointed. I can't really do a shortboard jibe, and these winds are for slalom races. Even if they have upwind marks, I can't do a shortboard tack either. Not a good situation for me. I have been waiting 18 months or so to do windsurf racing again (except for the ABK race clinic) and now the conditions are the ones I have been dreading. Sunday would be a good day for me to race (10 to 14 knots). Not Saturday. Well, one never knows, and its the beach I would go to any way for the W/NW wind direction that is forecast, so I guess I'll go and see what happens. Hope for the best. At least I will be able to get out and sail all day.

Till the next sailing day.

Lookin' Forward

Today dawned a somewhat dreary day, but the forecast called for some wind (or zephyrs may be a better word for it) from the SW, so I was lookin' forward to going to Heck and getting some raceboard practice in. I had spent yesterday working on my new version of my all-Harken outhaul on my HPL race boom, and was lookin' forward to trying that out (worked well). Also, I have been trying to put a tennis ball knob on the c/b for the Pacer, and have been lookin' forward to trying that out too. Unfortunatley, things haven't worked out quite like I thought, but right now I have a tennis ball full of Great Stuff foam with slot in the middle that fits perfectly over the end on the c/b. I am going to try Marine-Tex to hold it on. In the meantime, for the foreseeable future, I am using the c/b from the "other" Pacer. They are identical.

Back to the subject at hand. I arrived at Heckscher around 1:00 PM or so. I saw Jim M's van but he wasn't around. so I set to rigging the 9.5 Pacer sail. I also wanted to try my new Prodigy mast foot with a tendon. (It worked great, I guess all these boards with mast tracks use the same mast track) Jim eventually showed up, he was taking a walk with his wife. He rigged up his 8.0. There was another guy there who is at the very first stages of learning. He asked me if "this thing" (pointing to the uphaul) is supposed to give one callouses. I replied "yes, your hands should build up callouses as you windsurf more." Then I showed him how to put the bottom loop of the uphaul around the mast foot. Passin' it on.

So, I finally got out sailing and was planing for awhile. I practiced tacks, jibes, going upwing, going downwind. Spent a little bit of time doing the recovery drills we learned from Andy Brandt a couple of weeks ago. Drag raced with Jim a bit (I was able to get on a plane much quicker, but his top end may have been a bit faster). He was on his Bic 148 with an 8.0, and I was on the Pacer, but Jim is a potato chip, and I, sadly, am not. Although I am down to about 167 now (in the morning, after breakfast).

I am lookin' forward to this Saturday for the East Coast Fall Windsurfing Races. However, after not sailing with the 9.5 for a few weeks, I feel like I am not in good enough shape to race with it.  I did fiddle around with tuning it today, and got it looking pretty good, but it is pretty darn big and heavy. I dropped it a couple of times today, and sure had a hard time getting it back up (no inappropriate thoughts allowed here). So, I think I may enter the 7.5 class next week, depending on the wind.

Woo-hoo, one thing I found out is that they may do some timed starts. Finally! Real racing is coming to LI!
So, I really am lookin' forward to it and towards the end was practicing really railing the board with the 52 cm fin. It seems to go almost straight upwind with good speed when I got it way over, but it's not easy keeping it there. There is a point where it just seemed to take off. Of course, there was no one to compare to, but it did feel good. Lookin' forward to using the 60 cm fin next week, if I can get out of having the skin surgery done. We'll see.

Hopefully, all will go well, and there won't be a ton of wind next Sat (I can't believe I am actually wishing for lighter winds, but I do want to get in some tactical course racing).  btw, there was a really nice sunset tonight.

Well, 'till next time!!