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| Owner:
mas Member Member#: 7693 Location: Registered: 29-06-2008 Diary Entries: 381 |
8th October 2020 Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: WNW Wind Stength: 10_25kts Surf / Sea State: flat Air Temperature: warm Sea Temperature: cool Weather: Sunny / cloud Max Speed: 18.36 kts (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 11.6 nm (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Arrived late as usual, but Colsey was at the gate warning me the ground was soaked. He had to dig himself out with 2 scaffold boards in his van! He moved the van back near the gates but the field looked OK so I continued to mid way with the others, but he was right – my front wheel started spinning that was very close! Others were about to launch with 5m’s DC was rigging 9M and it was windy. White water up at Mistley and Wrabness ends. Thought about 7.2 but by the time I set up the Slingshot foil from scratch the wind had dropped a bit so went with 7.8 with the Exo RF91 board. The others were flying fast upwind, because the gusts were very strong – and swinging. Strange wind because all day it came thru in gusts rather than constant, but it was so strong you could fly a long way even if it dropped. The 7.8 was never over powered even in the gusts as you could feather it up or downwind. At 103kg I can’t see me ever using small sails for foiling like the marketing sales brochures say, because as soon as the wind eased I was slogging for long distances, till the next gust. Been fooling around with chicken foot straps locations for downwind legs and the middle straps of the Exocet are OK for reaching but no good for true downwind. If I kept the board I would add a single strap in the middle of the board. Today I tried to mimic DC by simply only sailing dead down and upwind avoiding reaches. I could only foil dead downwind when the gusts were strong, as sail was too small, so had to switch angle to reaching to keep the lift going at times. Back foot was always out of the back straps on the downwind legs, sometimes almost parallel with the front foot in the straps. This is the part of foiling I hate, that awful upright bent over stance, clocking 18kts downwind and knowing there is a crash waiting if the nose drops! Lucky thing it only dropped once and not bounce back up when I went through the front door. For me and my weight the RF91 dont bounce back up good enough or quickly to maintain the flight unless am in the perfect position. It seems to want to nose dive a lot, and not sure if it’s the Board, the Slingshot 76 foil or me. Back foot pressure is horrendous on my setup, and having tried just about every position with track and straps, am losing faith in the combination. The track and footstraps are all way back, just so am reasonable comfortable when flying reaches. The Slingshot fuse at 78cm is too short for my liking as well. It’s too see saw sensitive, great if you are a wave head but I like straight line blasting, like my freerace boards and it’s too short. I think a longer fuse for my heavy weight would help with the nose going down continually whilst am almost standing on the back edge at the end of the board to keep it up. Def ain’t right. Arrived too late to put on mileage, and was on the water the whole session as tide turned around 4.30 ish it seemed. Nice day playing around with ideas however and with sail mast track ¾ ‘s back for the big gusts. Upwind as always was brilliant in gusts and just like sailing a formula board hanging out and railing over a bit, although nowhere near DC angles which are phenomenal! The wind swung, and DC was sailing parallel to the beach whilst we were still reaching at least 20 degrees lower. Wind dropped about 4.30 just after high tide so drifted back. All the sailors had a good time and 5 stars for me. Ian almost pulled off a gybe in front of me at Mistley end and the Starboard board just touched the water as he flipped, so he is very close. I had 5 attempts today, but all failed at the flip. I still don’t get high enough at the start and the board is visible dropping as I slow up. Not that bothered however as didn’t want to fall in. Lord James and Rob were flying everywhere. These guys have really made foiling look easy, but I did find it hard the fist times, but glad have been thru the pain barrier spring. I saw James recover a bounce on his Starboard that was unbelievable as the board kangarooed at least ¾ times whilst he saved it and stayed on deck. For sure last month he was exiting the front door with those bounces. |
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