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| Member Details | Session Description |
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| Owner:
mas Member Member#: 7693 Location: Registered: 29-06-2008 Diary Entries: 381 |
14th June 2019 Windsurfing: Alton Ressy Wind Direction: SW Wind Stength: F2 - F5 Surf / Sea State: flat Air Temperature: warm Sea Temperature: warm Weather: Sunny Max Speed: 19.2 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 15.6 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Decided to get another foil training session in instead of fin fun which the others had on the coast at Felixstowe. SW is offshore at Alton Reservoir, so it was always going to be gusty and testing. Arrived about 11 and the wind was very light with 11 kts gusts coming thru so rigged 8.5 Goya / 147 Ultrasonic and RRD foil. As am still experimenting with mast foot position, harness and line, the day was going to be mainly testing. There were 5 fin sailors out and Mike packing up his foil session. One sailor looked to be sailing a dart with 2 foils front and rear, with some amazing crashes. I limped out in the offshore wind and everything changed dramatically, as the wind picked up and big gusts were coming thru, with no chance of even holding the sail, so had to let go of back hand and let them thru – poxy windsurfing, had I known would have rigged 7.0 or 7.8! To make matters worse I was using a waist harness which just doesn’t give the same holding power as my seat harness. The first few flights were a disaster, as F5 gusts just blew the whole board out of the water with the foil flipping upside down! Thankfully after 30 mins or so the wind gusts were less but I was still overpowered. The reservoir edges are now lined with long under water grasses which make landed or launching a real pain as fins and foils cut the long grass which cause mayhem and have to be removed manually, so stayed out. Then had to move the mast foot max forward, shorten the harness lines and raise the boom to get the setup right. I get in the foot straps and harness before flight if it’s windy as I find that the easiest, and the first flight of the new setup was an amazing 100 metres at least full powered and in control, so was well chuffed. Started getting good runs but also getting very tired in the strong gusts. Shame it was so windy and the day would have been a good fin session. Started to really understand foiling and my limitations. I was still wiping out after decent runs instead of gently lowering the board from full height, so started doing much lower height runs just tipping the nose down and up when I wanted. Great training on the flat water but would not be able to do it in chop. The days learning was I can now foil downwind much longer if I stay out of the harness, and just control the height with mast and body movement. You must move forward immediately the board lifts otherwise the ride is too high and I just spin out as my back foot reverts to fin style pushing side ways instead of down neutral. Levelling the foil is crucial. Not impressed with the waist harness as it rides up so become too long, but will use it very light winds only. Not a bad session, but used too large a sail for the day. |
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