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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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 Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 8:51 am Post subject: |
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| cgoudie1 wrote: | I slogged a sinker downwind from Blackberry Beach to
The Boat Ramp,(in the Gorge) on a failing Easterly |
Next time, take a load off. Have a seat. Sit on your board, legs/feet straight out in front of you straddling the mast, and run dead downwind. It still tests forearm endurance, but everything else is fairly relaxed. For steering, you control the board's roll angle with your hips and sail-steering with sheeting angle. Mostly, you're just sitting there headin' downwind, occasionally planing if there are any gusts and swell left, whether it's in easterlies or against the current below John Day Dam. If a sustained gusts passes by, you instantly and effortlessly pop to your feet and plane away.
John ... windSUP or windSURF unhooked for hours ... I'm very impressed. I'm mostly muscle and I can manage only minutes out of the harness voluntarily. |
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cgoudie1
Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Posts: 2599
Location: Killer Sturgeon Cove
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| Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 9:41 am Post subject: |
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Hey GT, I think we've had this conversation before, and probably
will again eh?
If your point (as was Solomon's) is that humans need a challenge for
complete fulfillment, I concur. I certainly enjoyed slogging back, much more
than I would have enjoyed swimming back (or hitch hiking around the Gorge
in my wetsuit), but I probably would have enjoyed a ripping ride back to
my beer cooler on a 22MPH wind even more.
I also agree that variety keeps the human spirit satisfied. I'll sail a huge
(100 ltr) board with a 6.7 sail, if it'll get me planning (heck in Utah, I'll sail
a 150 ltr board and a 9.5), and love every minute of it. They don't call
me the cheap wind whore for nothing. But if I can't plane, I'll probably
just go mountain biking instead. It is (in my opinion) a shame when some
people get to a frame of mind where they won't sail in anything lighter
than 5M conditions, but that is their prerogative and leaves more room
on the water for me.
Slogging (hooked in) is not my greatest joy, but it can be a useful skill
to get you back to your beer. Which I think the OP should consider
(and now we're back on topic).
Now please excuse me while I go enjoy a good head banging on yonder
rock. ;*)
-Craig
| GURGLETROUSERS wrote: | Well, without getting too philosophical, man can't live by strwberries and cream alone, and remain content. (Solomons lament.) I feel sure most of us had cave-man ancestors who banged their heads against the wall to avoid a surfeit of pleasure.
But isn't variation the very fuel of life? Didn't you actually enjoy slogging your sinker - or why mention it! 
The O.P. likes his lake, or would simply have given up bothering to windsurf. When I was in that first years flush of windsurfing (wow - secret of life, and all that) everything, and every day felt wonderful, and I couldn't get enough of it.
The shame with many, is that they go down that blind alley of ever higher winds and smaller boards ONLY, and become disillusioned (in real world less than perfect conditions) with the whole thing, and drift out of the sport. They don't seem to 'get it' that sessions of less intense activity on bigger boards actually enhance the whole experience of sailing, can be a 'thing' in themselves, and keep that magic flame burning brightly.
Why else would some of us be in it for life! |
Last edited by cgoudie1 on Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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wynsurfer
Joined: 24 Aug 2007
Posts: 940
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| Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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Although I used to sail in conditions like this,[0-30+[ I no longer do. What I used to do was use a longboard, a Fanatic ultracat.
Get upwind as far as you can with Daggerboard down in lulls, and in gusts bear off on a broad reach. Great fun! Very fast, but easy to control due to less apparent wind.
I'm sure many of the newer longboards would work as well, maybe a Kona 1.
I have found wide short boards too hard to control in the higher winds, and they dont go upwind as well, unless they have a daggerboard. |
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konajoe
Joined: 28 Feb 2010
Posts: 517
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 11:42 am Post subject: |
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slinky nailed it!!!!!!! And it doesn't have to be super gusty to really enjoy that kind of sailing. When the wind drops to sub-planing, centerboard down, and head upwind. When you see the gusts coming toward you (easier to see because you're sailing upwind) retract the centerboard and blast. So much fun!! You come back to shore after having a great time, and all the posers with their little boards are whining.
Kona 1 works great for this because it planes very well with the mast forward. So, you don't have to worry about moving the track back. |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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| Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2014 1:51 pm Post subject: |
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| konajoe wrote: | | all the posers with their little boards are whining. |
I'm sure you're not saying all folks who have only little boards are posers or whining. Some, of course, ARE both or either, but most of them just don't enjoy standing on a board and just motoring across flat water. Their objective is adrenaline, action, and challenge, not going from one place to another. |
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jingebritsen
Joined: 21 Aug 2002
Posts: 3371
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 5:32 am Post subject: |
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mr fink,
sailing windsup's in 4-12 mph is mostly sailing unhooked. whether that's going out thru the impact zone in displacement mode, or surfing the waves, it's all unhooked.
wave sailing with smaller boards with lots more wind requires long durations of sailing unhooked.
sailing the columbia river lit up on small gear allows one to stay hooked more.
i've shared this story before. sailing the hatchery with dale cook josh sampiero in 25-48 mph conditions. those that had go slow boards matched up with go fast sails suffered. those with tiny tooth pick boards and dinky sails suffered. dale cook and i had go fast kits, and the experience to make them fun. people with kits that could work in 48 mph were sinking up to their chests.
goes back to my original thoughts. don't slow the kit, let it run. too fast on a beam reach? point as directly downwind as you can to lower the apparent wind.
_________________
www.aerotechsails.com
www.exocet-original.com
www.iwindsurf.com
http://www.epicgearusa.com/ |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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| Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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| jingebritsen wrote: | mr fink,
the best way to deal with gusty conditions is to rig a slippery, large sail, and jibe in the gusts. try to glide thru the lulls. thus avoid slogging. |
That's been my mantra and practice for 15 years now, despite much criticism for it from those who value efficiency over every other criterion or simply lack the skills and motivation to rig big. It has snagged me countless sessions of planing my ass off, often alone or nearly so, while the vast majority rig too small and just slog, give up, or settle for planing only in the gusts. Some take the hint and develop the skills to rig and sail what they call "big", others just wait for more wind. Most of them apparently don't recognize the fallacy of labeling what's necessary for continual planing and maneuvering as "big". Your 7.5 sounds "big" (i.e., a LOT of work) to me, and my 6.2 often sounds "big" to most others where I sail, but when there's waves or swell to play on, "big" is often what it takes.
| jingebritsen wrote: | | wave sailing with smaller boards with lots more wind requires long durations of sailing unhooked ... sailing the columbia river lit up on small gear allows one to stay hooked more. |
Yes, but one can develop skills and use equipment that blend the two surprisingly well, allowing very surprising maneuverability while hooked in.
Mike "Fink" \m/ |
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beaglebuddy
Joined: 10 Feb 2012
Posts: 1120
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 3:30 am Post subject: |
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| As there is rarely any decent wind where I sail I have discovered sometimes the only way to have the sail offer enough resistance so I can hook in is to sail as high upwind as I can while sinking the windward rail. Grabbing the uphaul with the front hand seems to help as well |
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LeeD
Joined: 12 Jun 2008
Posts: 1175
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| Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2014 6:19 pm Post subject: |
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I was thinking of typical separated gusty Berkeley winds.
Generally, 23+ in the gusts, with sub 5 mph lulls and big 2' windswells, bottom of the fetch of 11 miles.
23 is no problem, even easy on a 7.4. Sub 5 is a real problem, especially when the winds of 23 caused thigh high wind chop from up high, and they inevitably come down to the Berkelely sailing basin.
Sub 2 or reverse direction, Easterly, makes the game more exciting.
A windsurf sail still needs =3 to hold itself up in slogging position. ONE mph is not kosher. |
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