Tuesday, July 8, 2014

55.9 km/h, 30 knots = new PB top speed

Wow, I got a 3rd day of windsurfing in a row. And it was so much fun. The session started out with lighter wind and fog but built up to a perfect 15-20 knot SW wind.

I finally stated getting the Ray 122 dialed in and with the 7.0 V8 and 44 cm fin I was getting more confident and going faster and faster as the wind picked up.

I sailed upwind for a while in the rough channel east of Dead Island. Looking at the map it was around 3 km upwind with 5 tacks 10 gybes over 30 km. I then then had some blazing downwind runs ‎where the water is protected by some small islands.

My speeds increasing over the 50 km session
Eventually hitting 55.9 km/h = 30 knots a new personal best
The speed chart shows my top speeds slowly increasing. A quick pit stop at my friends' island for a glass of water and some more suntan lotion and then one last run.
GPS trail showing the tacks back and forth to get upwind
(note map is facing the wind, eg. SW is top)
I was starting to sail with both legs straight which I wasn't comfortable doing the first 5 sessions I've had on this new board. It was on the 2nd last run that I hit 55.9 km/h. (Didn't Sammy Hagar sing "I can't drive 55?"). It could be a data error from the GPS but it did feel like a really fast run. Anyway I'm claiming my new top speed equals 30 knots.

FYI, I don't want to fall going that fast. The impact of the mast hitting the water with my harness still hooked on would be scary - another broken boom or worse. But I have seen videos of pro slalom sailors wiping out at that speed - and they keep coming back for more.

And hitting 30 knots in 20 knots of wind is pretty cool: my speed was 150% of the wind speed.
The fog before the session (I didn't wind up using the Skate 108)

The Ray 122 and 7.0 NP V8 that I did use
Now you can see Dokis and Dead Islands
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2 comments:

  1. boardsurfrJuly 8, 2014 at 8:58 PM

    Nice speeds! But the 30 knots look like a GPS artifact - it's a single peak that is substantially faster than all your other runs, which top out at 50 kmh. That's still very fast for 20 knot winds! Unfortunately, the non-doppler GPS units tend to have such spikes. You can also see them in the non-doppler data on GT-31s.
    On perfectly flat water, I typically can go about 25% faster than wind speed in gusts. Better guys do get faster, although that usually requires to be quite overpowered so they can do runs at 125-140 degrees of the wind. You're a better sailor than I am, so maybe you really hit 30 knots in the one perfect run. You should come down to Cape Cod so we can do some drag racing :-)

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  2. CdnGuyAugust 1, 2014 at 12:26 AM

    Thanks Peter. Yeah, I think I do get some spikes, but I also know I start going faster later in my sessions as the wind builds and I head back downwind after working my way upwind. So my sessions inevitably have the fastest runs at the end.... But it will be time for a doppler GPS eventually. Which do you recommend?

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