Windsurfing requires a lot of angles to come together properly to work right.
Wind comes from a direction, which changes often in direction and velocity. A sail will always tend to luff (or, in the case of a windsurfing sail, fly) into the wind. This is the neutral position, mast across the wind, sail just floating above the water. You could do this all day. Two fingers can hold a balanced rig.
The board will turn upwind if there is a lot of weight on the tail, or if making a heel-side turn. Weight over the centerline of the board will make it track straight. Things I’m learning: if the nose of the board is flying too much, or if the boards rounds up while waterstarting, move the mast base forward, to push the nose down more.
On the subject of mast base adjustment, You should have seen the rooster tail I was putting up on Sunday, dragging my tail in the water instead of riding flat. It was definitely blowing hard enough to plane. I was worried about shallow water inside The Hook. Sailing outside Wells Island was fun, although it gets pretty wavy out there. The run across the beach just isn’t really long enough for me to get into the straps yet. Confidence, young apprentice. In the footstraps awaits ultimate control. It’s like putting on the seatbelt, and having your actual foot on the gas pedal.
You’re a part of the board, now. Need some speed? Point your toes, and head downwind a bit. Need to slow down a bit and get back in control? Dig your heels, point upwind a little bit.
Swells turn into a maze of curves, sometimes you run down this trench, sometimes you surf down the face of that one, sometimes you just lift your knees a bit, and swoop over the top of one.
My perspective changes, and I’m no longer sailing, I’m just flying, falling towards the opposite shore, when I get there, I think “wonder what those waves look like from the other side?” and back across I go. Flying down home across the water. The enemy’s gate is Down.
I’m not quite there, again, yet. I am still remembering the gusts and making sure the deck on the board is nice and grippy.
“The enemy’s gate is Down” also works as an inspirational chant during waterstarting. Hey, whatever works.
I had a good weekend on the beach. R_ and M_, B_, and A_ and I were in The Gorge before Eclipse 2017, covered elsewhere. R_ did an admirable job picking up the beach start. M_ also enjoyed some beach starting. A_ was kind enough to film me, and I can definitely see some areas of improvement. 🙂
The new (to me) Sailworks NX 7.1m (a 4-cam race sail) did very well in its first outing. Sail has a lot of grunt, cams are a little hard to rotate, I’m definitely not rigging it quite right yet. The hardness lines are close to being dialed in. I should rig again in the yard to figure it out better. But, it flies well, seems to be in great shape, and works well with the Bic Rock (which is, for now, named “Rock”). Good sail, you will get loved to death.
I need to do some gybe land drills. If I knew what I was doing, I could have made a couple of those turns. I even got around to clew-first a couple times. Aw, yeah. I don’t have my boom shaka (yes, that’s what it’s called) down, so I haven’t gotten a good sail flip yet. Yes, a smaller sail is probably easier to flip. I can figure this out even on the 7m. Think how easy a 4.5m will be to flip, after this monster? I’ll do all the duck gybe and heli tack and all that on the small sail. But I have to be able to flip this sail. Because she’s my favorite size.
Harness lines. Mast foot. Gybe land drills. Windguru (sigh)