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!!