The Ultimate Crossing: Bart reached Maui, June 22nd 2011, 10:45am

The Ultimate Crossing: Bart reached Maui, June 22nd 2011, 10:45am: "Bart just reached Maui, after a very brutal 14hour paddle through the Alenuihaha Channel with wind always from the side, sometimes changing ..."

This Year's Fins!

Type R » Black Project Fins

I am looking forward to plenty of sailing on these fins. With any luck I will get my hands on the S-Type and perhaps the X-Type to see how they work

Do I use too big a sail?

As well as using my new Kona, I am trying to get back into slalom sailing.  Now I have found with the sessions that I have had so far this year that I have not been sailing well.  It has got me thinking about whether I use too big a sail (for my ability).  I have put together the following table for a number of sources and I am going to see how this compares to what I would normally rig up when I am next out.


Wind (knots)   Slalom Sail Sizes  Board
          6-10                 8.8                    135
         10-16             8.0 - 8.8            135
         16-21            7.3 - 8.0            110
         21-25            6.0 - 6.6            110
         25-31               6.0                        95
          31+               5.5                    95

A name?

It seems that everyone is naming their Kona Longboards.  Well I suppose I had better join in, so my 10'5 is now known as "Kylie".

Great review of the Kona 9'5 by my buddy Ed in Boards Magazine

"Having sailed the Kona 9'5" five times in the last week at: Littlestone x 2, Westbrook Bay (Margate), Minster, and Pirate Springs, I thought I'd be well placed to do an initial impressions review,

Shape:
The planshape is quite a teardrop design with the width taken right the way forward and a narrow, drawn out tail that is similar to a waveboard in width. Step tail is found where you'd find the back of a conventional board and the rear srap is over the leading edge of the fin (long fin track). I've set the stance wide and the straps big as per a waveboard.
Comfy deck with spongy bits under heal and finished in attractive green and white colour scheme.

Carrying:
Carry just like a conventional board. It balances well on the front strap.

On the water:
Have used with 5.8, 5.2, 4.5 in waves from virtually flat on Wed to Monday which was chest high.

Coming in:
Catches EVERYTHING. If you are a surfer you will know what I mean. Even in very light winds say 5knots, any small lump of swell can be pumped onto and the board then accelerates quickly onto the plane enabling you to get in the straps, ride the wave and glide between sections to link up sandbanks all the way to the beach pretty well every time.
The bottom turn is phenomonally good. Lean forward and commit the rail and it goes round in a beautiful arc even when left late and on a steep face. It's the best bottom turn in the business I reckon because of the amount you can commit at slow speeds; feels really radical.
Top turn; 'roundhouse' turns in about a board length. It's not snappy, but it does not fight you and carves round well. If you misstime it then you can stay in the straps and the tail supports you even at very slow speeds.
Down the line. I went down the line purely using the wave in the lulls and basically surfed the board from the straps on glassy waves faces for quite some distance. Also laid it down into rail driven power turns during powered up moments.

Going out; Off the plane glide out with feet up by the track, punches through the waves with ease (one foible; get splashed in the face by the white water hitting the nose).
On the plane work out through the waves by storming off downwind to avoid sections or luffing to a virtuall standstil to get over the biggies without jumping. The float means you can stay in the straps at a standstill then pump it back onto the plane rapidly.

Freeride; Composed, pleasant ride, with the security of knowing you can sail back from miles out off the plane in comfort if need be. Gybes with the best of them, Chop hops well (oops!). The thin and wide nose rides low and looks beautiful as it skims along

Upwind; off the plane it pulls about 200yards on the shortboards in one standard tack, on the plane about the same as the shortboards when riden from the straps or much better if feet placed more forward.


FUN FACTOR; 10/10
Change your mindset when you ride this board, forget planing at all costs. You can plane at the same time as the freestyle boards but that would be missing on all the fun. 
If there's any kind of wave then think like a surfer and use the sail to 'paddle out' to the line up (where the waves first break). Tack, and hang about just edging along slowly and watching. Pick your wave and bear away to pick up speed then surf frontside and backside all the way to the beach. Rinse and repeat!

Overall:
It's the best board I've ever sailed by quite some margin. Each session the wind was gusty and many packed up in disgust. I had my most enjoyable waves sessions maybe ever.
It's all going to be about finding gusty cross/cross off venues from now (albiet with full on jumping sessions too from time to time on my small waveboard), searching for reefs and sandbars and riding waves regardless of the wind. I was suffering from a serious mojo crisis and am fairly bored with bashing along in onshore stuff. This board has thrilled me beyond expectation this past week and I can't wait to explore new spots in previously impossible conditions on it. I urge all of you to get a demo on one of these. The 9'5" is perfect for my 73kg and would prob still be ok for up to 85kg. After that the 10'5" may be a better choice.

I've named mine 'Konan'."


Full forum discussion can be found at:


Boards Forum

Why Do I Windsurf?

I

Why do I windsurf?  Its sometimes very easy to go with the crowd and continue what you have always doing without troubling yourself to think about why you do it.  However, it is more fun to question your approach, at least from time to time.  I am like a lot of sailors in my part of the world, I grew up as boards got shorter and was young when planing on a board was the difference between the old (some would say pioneers) and the new (which was once me), so everything was devoted to get planing otherwise you were not having fun; and who wants to have no fun?  Recently, I have begun to think that this has led me to neglect an important aspect to windsurfing and that is simply being out and having fun, as the old surfing quote goes "the best surfer on the water is the one having the most fun".  I have been prevented from doing this over the years by only having boards of no more than 110L which are not much fun where there is little wind or what wind there is is gusty and fluky.  This is something that has preyed on my mind in the last couple of years, especially as now I can usually only sail when I am free and those times are not always windy.  Also, I am lucky enough to live three minutes drive from Bough Beech in Kent and whilst this is an excellent inland venue it still suffers from the more gusty nature of lakes, so again my 110L does not really work that well here (I am 90kgs by the way, in case those light weights were thinking 110L "that's huge!")

So what is the purpose of the rather long introduction above?  Well, no getting enough out of my sailing has been bugging me and I sort of thought that a "long-board" was the answer, but I did not know what to go for. Raceboard?  No (not yet at least) as this would mean buying a new rig and I did not want to do that.  Also, I have tried some old raceboards and just not got on with them for the sort of sailing that I want to do which is playing in small waves and doing old-skool freestyle.  Beginners boards?  Again, no as they all seem to be short these days and do not (in my humble opinion) carve well on small waves - I have tried.  SUPs?  Now that seemed to be getting closer as I have had huge amounts of fun with one in Maui, but when the wind came up a bit, it did not work as a windsurfer at all.  Recently I have been talking to Ian Kraft (aka Krafty) (well know in Kent and other places from Kernow to Tiree) and he was telling me about the fun he has had with an Exocet Kona 10'5 in small waves and light to medium winds, i.e. from 6 to 14 knots.  In fact it gave him so much fun that he has decided to import them into the UK - http://www.surfkraft.com/.  Now that spoke volumes to be as its along the lines of "I liked the razor so much I bought the company" - showing my age here with that advert quote.

So when Ian offered me a chance to try the Exocet Kona 10'5 I couldn't wait for rubbish conditions to try it out in.  Last night was the first chance that I have had since the board has sat in my back room waiting to get out.  I met Ed (another Kona sailor) at Littlestone and we checked out the conditions.  As we looked at the time coming in and the familar slow, mushy waves breaking in a pretty confused sort of way I asked Ed what he thought was good about the Kona longboards, he simply smiled and said, "the only thing that I will say now is that they are special", not sure what to make of this he went on by saying "we can talk about them after you have been out".  With that I rigged up my Hot Sails Maui Smack 5.5m and Black Project 28cm wave fin and walked down to the water.  The first thing that I noticed was that without thinking I had picked up the board as I would my short boards with the sail on my head and carrying the board by one footstrap.  Now, even though the version I was trying was not the light "TT" version I could easily carry it as I would a short board; it was so well balanced.  I thought, "well thats good at least its not hard to get to the water, because there is a long walk at Littlestone!"

On the Water.  So to the waters edge, by now the wind which had been strong enough to be out on a freestyle wave board had dropped off and I could see the guys already out bogging and planning in equal measure- that stop-start style of sailing that's so frustrating.  Well that was not for me last night, I simply cruised out through the white water and pushed the nose downwind when a gust came and progressively (but quickly) came up onto the plane.  Then when the wind dropped the reverse happened, no fuss, no sudden stop.  I thought that's pretty relaxing so lets concentrate on finding the waves.  Now, at this point I decided it was time to put in a quick gybe so I leaned into what I thought would be a slow drawn-out gybe and then I was in the water as the board had turned so fast that I had been left behind!  As I was swimming after the board I remembered what Krafty had said "Don't get caught out by your first gybe, its not slow to turn.  Though I bet you will forget this and be too slow!".  So laughing, I had to say, "Krafty, you were right!"

After that little hiccup I quickly waterstarted (though I did have time to notice the raised pad behind the back strap which was in the perfect place to rest the boom and make lifting the sail easy - co-incidence or great design? - and headed back in looking for some waves to play with.

What I found great about the board was the ability to cruise around and either glide to be in the right position if there was no wind, or plane and point high if there was some wind.  This meant that I was catching so many more waves than if I had been out on my freestyle wave that it was not true.  Now, once I caught a wave I had thought that the board would simply straight-line it; but not a bit of it.  In the same way that it carved faster than I had anticipated when gybing it like a long-wave board on the wave.  Simply put, it turned and this fact made it so much fun to play on the limited waves we had.  Also, with the volume and waterline making it easy to get up wind I had the confidence to head down-wind to make full use of the waves or pick up a new ones down-wind.  Again, more fun than I would normally have expected in those conditions.  In fact when I was sailing down a little wave it came to me that the reason that this board was such fun was that it was a longboard that felt rather like a short board, what I mean by this is that it gave very similar sensations to a short board, but at slower speeds and in lower winds.

By the time I got back to the beach a couple of hours had flown by and I was just in time to see some of the other guys leaving in a slightly grumpy mood as they had not really had enough wind to get the most out of their freestyle boards.  But I was lucky to have a broad grin on my face as I had had a great time on the water- and that is what it is all about.

The Future.  Next time, I am looking forward to seeing how close I can get to being able to change down to my Proof 94L  wave board straight from my Kona.  I think that there will be occasions when I can do this, perhaps where the conditions are good, but I think that I will still need a freestyle wave board as a cross-over,  but lets see.

I am also looking forward to trying the Kona on a lake with a 7m as I think that its glide will be a winning formula with a freeride sail - got my eyes on something like a SuperFreak.

Thanks for a great evening sail must go to Ian Kraft, Hot Sails Maui and Black Project Fins and my sailing buddy Ed.

Lots more to come...

Other people's views.  Other tests you may find interesting:

Windsport.com

Boardseeker

UKWA Slalom - Hove, 3/4 July 2010

Last weekend saw my first attempt at any form of competitive windsurfing, apart from sailing with my brother (but that has always been a little one-sided...), when I took part in the UKWA's Masterblaster at Hove in the UK.  

The Concept of the Masterblaster - This is a new addition to the UKWA's slalom events that have been going for many years.  It differs in that it is aimed at people who would like to race other sailors but do not want to dedicate themselves to it, or people looking to try out racing without the stress of joining the amateur fleet (I have been told that it is actually very laid back).  The format is very simple and matches what most windsurfers do whenever they sail in that it only involves sailing out to one mark and back.  The start is taken care of by means of a beachstart in the shallows and the finish is a dash up the beach to tag the Race Flag, which is being held by the Race Officer.

I think that the approach of the Masterblaster Event is perfect for me as I am keen to add a little competition to my sailing, but do not want to totally commit to a race series and indeed, to be truthful, I do not yet have the skills to be able to complete a full-on amateur fleet race.  And for these reasons, I think that there are lots of sailors who would enjoy the Masterblaster concept.  As Nik Baker said at the prize giving (yes, there are prizes too...) "...if you can sail out and back; then you can race!"  The prizes and overall organisation of the event was done my Nik Baker (North / Fanatic / ION) and I think that this helped in putting on a really good event.

I know that some people will be put off by thinking that they need all new slalom gear, but I do not think that is the case.  If you consider that the racing will most likely take place on flat water in winds from 6 knots to 25 knots (I was told that above that it becomes a little too hectic and competitors tend to prefer watching the Pros compete, though that is not written in stone) then to be perfectly competitive I think that an average weight sailor could happily use one sail to get up and planing in about 11 knots (say 7.5 or 8.0 freeride sail) and one sail to use when they can't hang onto that sail, perhaps a 6.5m again another freeride.  As for boards, I think that a 120 to 130 freeride board would be perfect with perhaps a change down for wind over 18 knots.  I think that most people either have this kit already or have access to it.  So there is no reason why not to give another Masterblaster Event a go.

Formula kit was perfect for the first day

Watching how to complete the final gybe

 

My Event - My brother (who raced many years ago) had impressed on me the importance of the need to arrive early and get rigged up as soon as possible.  So, I was ready by 8:30am with boards and rigs ready to go.  This meant that I could then have a chat with the race officer and find out how things worked.  I was very impressed with the organisation of the UKWA and also their helpfulness.  It certainly made it starting out very easy and enjoyable.

The wind on Saturday morning was not ideal for me as it was hovering around 9 to 11 knots, but the Race Officer, Ian Jackson, was keen to get as many races in before the much talked about shoredump appeared around high tide.  We were only to happy to agree to this as our starts were to take place in exactly the place the shoredump would dump!  Later we saw plenty of broken battens and a few broken masts when the Pro and Amateur fleets came in for lunch as the shoredump munched a a few sails.

As the winds were light most of the honours went to a chap on formula gear and Jack from Essex who was a little lighter than me and also a very good youth sailor.  Though when the wind came up I found that my 8.0 Hot Sails Maui GPS was perfect for the job, though I could have held down a bigger GPS if I had one and that would have helped me in the light airs especially as one of the reaches was a bit on the tight side.

As the tide and the wind came up the shoredump gathered strength it was decided to finish the fifth race of the day and look forward to the next day when better wind was predicted for the afternoon.  This allowed us to sit up on the beach and watch the Pro and Amateur Fleets.  It was very interesting to observe the various rig and board trims of the sailors and see the differences in boardspeed.

The next day saw plenty of wind which increased in the afternoon to something over 18 knots.  This was perfect for me and I stuck with my GPS 8.0 and Mistral 135L.  This combination allowed me to score a first and a couple of seconds from the five races we had.  All of the races were very competitive with some good close jockying for position around the gybe mark.  I think that I was unlucky not to win a couple more races as I think that I had the necessary board speed, but I hit chunks of weed a couple of times and slammed in.  With the short races there was almost no time to recover and catch up, still there was nothing that I could have done about the weed and it was the same for everyone else.

After all the races had been completed I was pleased to see that I had managed second place, behind Jack who had sailed well all weekend.

To sum up I really enjoyed the event.  The organisation was very good and the fellow competitors were very helpful and friendly and also learnt lots of things by simply taking part and talking to people.  The only downside was that I lost my GPS Recorder GT-31 somewhere after being slammed, so I can not post the tracks and speed for the weekend.

One final thing to say is that all of the competitors were grateful to Ian Jackson who ran the races brilliantly and really made the Masterblaster event.

I am really looking forward to the next event I am free to enter which is at the end of August at Worthing.

Between jobs...

I have a month now until I start at a new job.  Lets hope that the SW winds come back and that I can get some sailing in.  In the meantime I think that I will spend some time checking over my kit to make sure everything is as I want it to be.  

I did get out the other night at the local lake for a bit of light wind slalom.  The wind was NW 8 to 14 knots, not the best direction as its rather gusty.  I did get a top speed of just over 25 knots, though I think that I am a bit disappointed with that showing.  However, I am not sure what I should be aiming for in that sort of wind.  I think that with a bit more power I can get close to 30 knots, but not with a 8.0m.  That size just does not feel like it is even being tested in such low wind.  Perhaps I should sort out a bigger sail for those sorts of days.  At least that way I know that the wind will come back!

Bough Beech Thursday Night

Well it looks like Chris' continued absence is ensuring that the wind keeps blowing, if from the North again.  Thursday looks like it could be decently windy with Windguru showing something in the region of 14 to 20 knots.  I hope to see plenty of people out and, as always, I am more than happy to organise a race or two (out-and-back affairs, nothing fancy).  In case you don't know me I will always be on a 8.0m Hot Sails Maui GPS or a 5.9m Spyclone also from Hot Sails.

I look forward to reporting back at the end of the week on some decent sailing action.  Hopefully we will be able to get some photos done.

The beast lives

Well I managed to get 25 knots out of this board the other day. I have now been told that some mad Frenchman has got 35 knots out of it! Well that is a challenge if ever I heard one. This board will not be going on ebay any time soon.

New Select S09 slalom elite fin!

I am looking forward to getting some good speeds out of this!  SO 9 Fin

Thanks to Rik at "Riks Windsurfing" for the fin and helpful advice about fin type and size selection.

Surprise Thursday night speed

There is a phrase "Fail to Prepare:  Prepare to Fail" and this can to mind last night when on slotting in my fin to my Mistral 135L RD Slalom I noticed that I had brought a deep tuttle fin and not a tuttle fine.  This was as I looked out on the water to see a nice Bft 3 to 4.  I then realised that I had left an ancient Starboard Go 170 (85 by 270ish) at the Lake and thinking that it would be better to get out then watch I slotted by HSM GPS 8.0m on that and headed off after fitting the deep tuttle Select Zero Racing Fin - which did not fit the Mistral's box. 

Carrying the board down to the water I was a bit put off by the weight of the Starboard after the Mistral so I had low expectations of even getting going, especially as 8.0 is not really a light wind size for chaps my size.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised that with a little gust it was off and despite the footstraps being too far in-board I managed to get just over 25 knots on it when the wind was no more than a 3 to 4Bft.  At no time did I feel properly powered up, but the board did feel a bit like a run-away bus when moving at speed, though to its credit it gybed really pretty well and fairly tight when needed.  It has got me thinking about how fast I could get the Go going... I wonder if it could do over 30 knots?  Perhaps a bigger sail and a bit more wind would see that or maybe it would top out at 27 knots.  Still it could be fund to try and fun out.

Taking up Racing

I am looking to do some racing this year and the following links have been helpfully suggested to me:


http://www.lwawindsurfing.co.uk/html/starting_racing.html

http://www.lwawindsurfing.co.uk/html/advice_to_race_officers.html

Look like interesting stuff to me and lots to learn!

Thursday 10 June

As most of you will probably know Chris will be trying to enjoy himself at Club Vass this Thursday so we have been left to organise ourselves...


The plan is to get down to the Lake as soon as we can after work (aim for 6:30 to 7pm) and rig up straight away.  I think that we should then have a quick chat to decide what people want to do.  If there are people who would like to do some racing then I will organise that (I expect it to be something simple) or if people would like to just do some freesailing then that would be great too.  We could even organise a freestyle event if there was demand - we do need to practice our moves for when Chris comes back from teaching Andy "Bubble" Chambers how proper freestyle is done.


It looks like there could be some wind (though I said that last week) according to Windguru - BBSC

 By the way, if anyone is a bit of a photographer it would be great if you could get some shots and I will add them to my blog.

Look forward to seeing you there - if I am held up at work then just get out on the water as quick as you can!


Andy

Thursday Night is Race Night

Lovely sun and blue sky, shame the wind was not so good.

Thursday Night is Race Night

Last night was the first of the fun evening races at BBSC.  The idea is to encourage everyone to add a little bit of competition into their sailing.  The format was a simple out-and-back one.  This meant that there was only one mark and so it was easy and quick to set up.

Several people turned up on all sorts of boards, from full-on retro longboard racing kit to 130 L freeride boards. This did make it hard to figure out a fair approach, but it was decided to ignore the differences and simple race for the fun of racing against one another.  With a "one, two, three, GO!" the first race started and it was soon clear that the retro longboard still stood head and shoulders above the newer kit in the very light winds, but even so it was good to see the youngest sailor, Dominic, first to the mark (with only the smallest of head starts).  I was not far behind, but managed to fall in as the dodgy sliding mast track and grip-less board conspired to undo by cat like balance (these old race boards are tippier than I remember).  This allowed Nick (on full course racing gear) to sneak past me and Dominic and hold off Chris for the first victory (although will be disqualified by the Race Officer for having raced in the past and also having more skill than is allowed under the Rules).

As the first race ended the wind become even lighter and more flakey so most sailors spent the rest of the evening free-sailing practising lightwind freestyle (I will claim the world's slowest duck gybe).

All in all it was good to simply be out on the water.  Next week we may see if we can organise a one-design race on Starboard Rios and 5.5m sails.  More in the next report.

What to do if your fin screws are way too long?

Just shows that it is worth checking your kit before sailing it.  I arrived to find that my fin screws were too long and the fin would not fit tightly in the box.  With a bit of luck I found just enough washers in my tool box to make it work.  

Not very fast today...

I had the chance to sail at Whitstable yesterday.  There was plenty of wind, about 18 to 24 knots.  The only thing was that it was bang onshore and high tide.  This makes it rather hard to get out as the groynes are only about 20 yards apart which means you have to swim out against wind and, in this case, tide so that you can edge past the groynes and get some speed up very quickly to head up wind.  However, there is not much space and twice I managed to almost smash into submerged groynes.  In fact, I did graze them slightly and picked up some minor dings to the board, but nothing serious.  

I had rigged up the 8.0 Hot Sails Maui GPS and slotted that into the 110 (66cm) Mistral Slalom RD.  I thought that this would be a bit too bit for the conditions (even though someone on the beach told me that it was dropping), but I wanted to find out when that combination would be too much.  I think that for comfortable sailing I was right in that it was a little on the large size, not that the sail became unstable; but more that there was more power than I could comfortably control, especially when trying to gybe and tack.  The board was surprisingly controllable given the condition of the chop, which was a intense form of Thames Estuary corrugated chop - short, sharp, steep and brown.  I would have loved to try it with a 7.3 but I do not have a mast for that at the moment.  I would also have liked to try the 95L Mistral Slalom and a 6.6 GPS but I did not have the combination with me.  

All in all it was a good session to show that the conditions required a smaller set up (and perhaps some more sailor skill....).  I found I could really only get comfortable going upwind, downwind I was completely out of shape and I think that showed in the very low GPS speed of just over 23knots showing on the GT-31.

Whitstable is a very pleasant place to sail from (if you can get parked) and the Whitstable Oyster Company - the building on the far left above (http://www.oysterfishery.co.uk/) is good for food and coffee.

Hard slalom session

Very choppy and bang on shore meant a disappointing speed.
Lessons for the day are sort out fins and get a 7.3m and sail in power
not overpowered, at least not yet

more lightwind freestyle practice

Another hour or so in the drizzle doing lightwind stuff.  No sign of summer or decent wind.  Fingers crossed that tomorrow will deliver...