My experience with a Bic/Ker foil (big buy )

[swchandler]

Just the other day I happened onto to a 15 minute raw footage video that Kevin Kan took of himself sailing solo at Ocean Beach in SF on a 3.8 with stout gusts of 50mph or more. He admitted that it was humbling, and the video showed just how tough and unsettling things were. Now, Kevin is without question an awesome sailor that always seems to be in perfect control, but there can be limits that test even the best of us.

Would things have been a lot easier if Kevin weighed 250lbs? I seriously doubt it.

[dllee]

250? No
But 215 allows the same skill to work and accounts for around .7 meters, allowing more twist in the sail and more weigjt for the gusts..assuming the lulls weren't low.
I started sailing OBSF every day there was wind in fall '83. Done 7 mph on 12' board to gusts of 35 on 3.7.

[boardsurfr]

[boardsurfr]

[dllee]

You are too blind to note that I mentioned practice as a big factor. Big guys don't get much practice.
160 lbs'ers can get tons of practice.
185 is a good balance for speed. I already mentioned rhat except blind people don't understand what they read.
A blind physics professor is still blind.

[boardsurfr]

A few excerpts from dllee "contributions" to this thread:

[dllee]

Mine don't entertain, they are just the facts.

[coachg]

I may have a simplistic view of physics, but as a high school math teacher I have a pretty good grasp of numbers. There are no 150 lb riders in the top 10 of the PWA in slalom. There would be if the races were in light wind locations or artificially flat water like they use for speed sailing, but PWA slalom races are usually in windier, choppier conditions. There is a limit to size because if you get too big you are at a major planing disability, but around 90-95 kg appears to be the range of the top riders. Their size allows them to use bigger sails & boards in windy, choppy conditions which give them a planing advantage. That "higher braking forces" on one end is an earlier planing advantage on the other. Those of us smaller sailors have a tough choice. If we go down to a smaller board so we don't bounce out of the chop we are at a planing disadvantage. If we use a board large enough to match up planing wise, we have a tough time in control & keeping the board down in jibes.

One other observation. I'm 170 lbs & when I use my skinny 70 liter board I don't smash through chop. I cut through the smaller chop & ride over the bigger chop because regardless of board size, I do not have the weight to smash through chop. Using a smaller board only allows me to stay in contact with the water better than a bigger board at the cost early planing.

Coachg

[dllee]

Sometimes, when we're schooled too much in theory science, we forget that what happens in the real world is slightly different than what happens in our theoritical perfect box.
This seems to happen quite a bit, and it can affect doctors, lawyers, chemists, physics professors and even mathmeticians, and those who study ANYTHING too much without seeing enough of the outside world.

[U2U2U2]