Coast rescue

[chophop]

I am completely baffeled by the mast failure, it broke upon jybing.

Very strong winds on a 5 year old mast? It was not used that much as I only use it on really small sails. Over and out.

[johnl]

[SAS]

I think this is a good radio to consider for those of you who want one. It is marketed to scuba divers, and comes with a hard case that is waterproof to 130 M depth, so it should easily handle windsurfing. It also has a GPS built in, and will do automated distress calls giving out a distress message with the GPS coordinates.

It's not easy finding a windsurfer floating in choppy water, and the GPS info can let them find you even if it is dark or foggy.

It does cost $299 which is more than a basic radio, but the waterproof case is included.

http://www.nautiluslifeline.com/

[carl]

[quote="johnl"]

[dllee]

Also, lets take into account OP's religion of taping the mast together.
How did that idea come about? Could the pieces have NOT been pushed together in the recent past, and the tape is to always, from that point on, keep the pieces together?
1' above the ferrule, female end, is always caused by insufficient insertion sometime in the life of the mast That normally calls for immediate ejection of the mast top and sail, then a 2 hour paddle to a downwind catch beach....which possibly leads to an overnight due to bad reception in the cliffs under Hwy1.
Bad situation, glad you made out with your life and humor. CG doesn't save your board, for any amount of bribery. CG boats will save your gear.

[chophop]

The tape is simply to keep the mast sections from sticking together due to sand infiltration. Mast looked fine. Fit together normally.

[dllee]

As a windsurfing shop employee of over 22 years, how many times have I heard the ..."I was just sailing along, no stress, barely planing, and ........just broke out of the blue, no reason, what happenned?
As a surfshop employee of over 14 years, how many .."I was just paddling my board in the flat water and this stress fracture appeared rail to rail"...
As tennis shop employee of only 2 years, I must have heard .."this racket just developed cracks for no reason, give me a new one".....
Stuff happens, and all for a good reason.

[wavezz]

LabDad - freakin hilarious 'new girlfriend' drank all your beers. was she cute?

Carl - "If a mechanic drops a wrench on a military jet with carbon wings, the entire wing has to be replaced" - That's simply wrong. I have >20klbs of prepreg carbon experience in various venues, and am an engineer at the Postgrad school in Monterrey. work on a very large carbon spacecraft telescope in a research lab (NPS SRDC). Please give a citation about your mechanic story. Lot's of in-situ repair techniques have been developed for local skin repairs, search SAMPE and ICCM . thermal imaging and pulse echo can inspect without damaging to identify the area for repair. (published a few , PM me and can provide references).

However, non visible impact damage is definitely possible. CAI, compression after impact, is a standard for developing residual strength criteria after a calibrated impact damage that's used for air breathers 'planes' design (not applicable to spacecraft). Any mast could certainly have below surface delams, and not be readily visible. Or, a fab void, that took awhile for the crack growth to develop. Hey good things happen, guess it was time for a new mast. Also have seen several lousy ferrule bonding, where voids eventually gave way, and the insert became crooked or failed completely.

Flip side of all that - if you can't swim that far, maybe you are out further than you should be. DLanding is most adventurous if you end up on the wrong beach to the south. More than once someone's almost been killed south from the landing. Years ago, Bob climbed up the cliff in the dark by the cement pier when his u-joint split. Totally nuts.

Think about when was the last time you truly swam 1750 yards in a pool and timed it? If you are thrashing for 45 minutes (or 2 hours), warden is gonna come by and check it out. Kiter at Waddell, snapped a flying line at just over 1.5 miles, took ~2 hrs to paddle back, "shark kibble" wannabe.

If Coasties get a lot of calls, certainly could turn ugly. IMHO, folks need to be really careful It's been a great spring, but seems to be quite a rash of incidents.

I also have to agree with Higg-man. First defense, if you have a board and can't rerig by flipping the mast to make shift a small sail, ditch the boom, paddle like crazy. From the N Point outside reach, likely could make 3rd beach with a reasonable paddle.

Glad all turned out OK. Watch Craigslist for Monterrey for the Quattro it's likely posted for sale already. Come to think of it, I could use a newer board to replace my old junk.

Must say, Sweet today, only good ol' Bruce was at shotgun.. I'm a Waddell guy more than DPort, mostly cause it's only a mile drive. Rest folks , dopes on ropes having fun - the usual suspects. Guess we could all go back to Cowell's where it's safer .. pic below . . ah, paradise. Oh, and what a perfect butt tanning on the beach south of the Waddell parking lot today, I swear - made the south 'beach schlepp' worthwhile.

LOL.

[Snapper]

Hey, Wavezz...

I was there when Bob lost his board while sailing WAY outside. I sailed downwind, retrieved the board, and brought it in to the beach (tied it along my downwind boom arm). I could not sail upwind with it at all. Bob ended up ditching his sail after realizing the Helo wasn't coming, and swam in. He ended up at the same beach that I brought his board into...way downwind. When he showed up in the parking lot, he was dirty and his hands were a bit cut up from scaling that cliff! Amazing! The next day, he repelled down the cliff, and retrieved his board. I think that's the same beach that another sailor spent a couple nights on??

I once swam across/under the Golden Gate bridge. The wind died, and left me smack dab in the shipping lane with an ebb tide and a freighter coming into port. I swam like hell, and made into Fort Point in the dark. Nothing like climbing over rocks with your gear in the dark.

My point? Get to swimming! Don't count on anyone else saving your arse! You took the risk, so follow it through. Someone MIGHT come to your aid, but don't count on it.

[dllee]

Towing gear upwind is not fun.
In the days of FlyingTigers, this guy Dennis lost his entire rig for some reason, was swimming around. My g/f at the time, all 134lbs of her, towed him across the mouth of Tigers back to the old launch. Dennis weighed just over 200lbs. She was riding an 8'3" Haut Wave, 4.5 GaastraWave.
But my story now comes.....
His rig went downwind out to the middle of the bay. Did you know there are TWO platforms out in the middle of the bay downwind of Tigers? One is about 2 miles out, the other 4. I passed the first one, decided to give up, when his new NorthInfinity sail flipped over, catching my eye....another mile downwind! Like the dummy I am, I sailed down, ditched his battens, rolled up the sail, tied it on the deck between the masts, boom towed behind rear straps, mast base thru rear straps, and towed the whole assembly at least 2 miles upwind to the old CoastGuard station landing East of the airport.
Security came out in their carts to save the day, I sailed back to the launch, informed Dennis, he drove out the dirt road to the CG station, met the cart, got his gear, and yelled at me for ditching his battens!
Yes, I deliberately ditched his battens and two cams. That was my payment, collected early.
Oh, I was a slalom racer then, and could go upwind.