Light wind beginner sessions on the bay

We had two sunny but low wind days with visitors. So it was perfect taking them out to the flat water spot on the bay. 

The 3.5m Ezzy kids rig works perfectly on my sister's old BIC Veloce 328 board.  Somehow the sharp rails help lightweight beginners go straight and thus stay upwind. 

Big board and small sail. Hand on the mast. Steady winds.
= beginner success for Quinn and Marc

My wife even went out for some light wind freestyle with the 5.4m sail after I had played around for a bit. 

Jen out for a low wind session

Next week should have some more exciting windsurfing. Heading to Baja...

Getting better at Kona racing

Today I had my first Wednesday Night Kona races that felt successful.

It was a relatively light wind and the Toronto Windsurfing Club attracted around two dozen raceboards and what seemed to be a dozen Kona class windsurf boards. There were also a number of "learn to windsurf" students racing which was great to see.

Before launching I checked out how the local top racer Bob had his gear rigged and tried to emulate his fuller sail. Previously I'd been downhauling my sail like I do for high wind planing. I was happy to see fellow Kona windsurfer Constantine back with his ripped sail nicely repaired.

The first race saw all fleets start at the same time which makes for an exciting start line. The second and third races had separate starts for the raceboards and then Konas started 5 minutes later and each fleet did a single lap. That worked out nicely in the light winds.

I was sailing well and was competitive this time and enjoyed the feeling of being part of the fleet and chatting with fellow competitors while on the water rather than being left alone at the back of the fleet.

In between races while waiting for the next start I tried some of the first duck tacks I've ever attempted with a 9.0 and then even successfully completed a few.

It will be nice to see if my sense of improvement is real when the results are updated online.

First Kona race GPS track - this one was two laps.

Kids day at the flat spot

I had a great day windsurfing with two of my kids.

Katie came out after lunch and tried out her young gun and the 3.5. She didn't get planing but used the harness all the time and even got a foot in the back footstrap. Here's a nice shot of Katie:

Katie out enjoying the steady wind and flat water

I sailed the 7.0 NP V6 and pumped myself onto a plane several times.

Just before dinner, Phillip came out and took the 7.0 on the Techno while I rigged and sailed the 9.0.

We had a great time sailing together. I was faster on my 9.0 but on the runs where he was in the straps and flying, it was surprisingly hard to catch him!

I think this spot will become a must launch spot when I have windsurfers looking for an easy launch. The water is very flat in both directions and with polarized sunglasses on there is really little danger of hitting the few shoals that are there.

I luckily managed to record that 2nd session as well on my new GP 102 GPS. I'm having a hard time seeing the tiny display on the tiny GPS and at the end I didn't think it was really on. I hope I don't wind up missing a session in the future. My GPS watch was better for being able to see my total distance and max speed while sailing.

Here are the GPS trails. The Canmore GPS software is pretty good.

My speeds from 7.0 first session

My speeds from 9.0 second session

I've started using GPSResults.de to review the track. It has a neat user interface with colour coded speed charts and detailed results. Thanks Windsurfloop Peter for the tip!

Cool data analysis from GPSResults
Fastest speeds when heading downwind!

The google earth view of the flat water session.
Phillip also did a number of tacks back and forth - 3/4 km each way!

Phillip getting ready for Baja

My son Phillip had his first session in quite some time. I rigged up the 6.2 for him and he chose the Techno 148.

The wind was a solid 15-20 knots and he was ripping back and forth. His waterstarts were excellent and it was super fun to watch him having a good time. He easily made it back upwind to where we had started when it was time to pack up.

I used the new Canmore G-Porter 102 to record my session. I bought that GPS to get more accurate speed readings. The GP 102 setup and download was a little bit complicated but I was able to pull up my first session. I hit 45.9 km/h which is pretty similar to what I recorded on the Garmin GPS on a typical 9.0m NP V8 with the Ray 122.

I have now set the Canmore GP 102 to record more data points so we'll see what the next tracks look like.

My nice tracks - 10 km total using the new Canmore GP 102 GPS

45.9 km/h just like on the old Garmin watch

Phillip waterstarting

Nice run Phillip

Some nice speed - Phillip is ready for Baja?

Marathon on water

A marathon is 42.2 km. I sailed 43.2 km in 1:49, which amazingly is only a bit faster than the 2:03 world record for running a marathon. It is considerably easier to windsurf at 21 km/h than run at that speed!

Average speed of 21 km/h - just like a marathon runner!

I waited all day for the wind to switch from NNW to the predicted SW. I headed out after finishing emails and seeing the wind shift at 4pm.

View of my route from the SW wind direction.
Start finish is at the centre top.
I sailed upwind through the islands to the left, then over to
the open (flat) water lower right, then back downwind in the centre...

I worked upwind slowly via a nice route up through the islands.  I was on the Ray 122, 48 cm fin and 9.0 NP V8. I'm starting to get better at finding a set up that has both legs straight while sailing. I seem to spend too much time pinching upwind with my front leg bent or not even in the strap.

Wind was 11knots when I started, built to a steady 15, and was back to 11 when I finished. I timed it perfectly!

I have been uploading some of my sessions to the GPS Team Challenge but it seems my Garmin 910XT GPS isn't accurate enough for the site. So I hope a new GPS arrives for next weekend's sessions and that my actual top speeds are not too far off what I've recorded here in the past.

Canada Day - True North (Wind)

Canada day is a great day to celebrate the founding of our federation and freedom. Since it is a national holiday, you can do whatever you want. I got to go Windsurfing.

However, the wind was our gusty and sometimes cold north wind. It was predicted to switch to west, so I went out later in the day. The wind was gusting 5-15 knots: from glassy to whitecaps. It was pretty much from the north the whole time with a few shifts.

The water was warm near shore. And in the wind shadow of Dokis island it actually felt warm on my feet. Farther out on my long SW run where the wind had moved the water around it was decidedly cold. The Georgian Bay weather beacon says the water and wind were 15c (60f).

Overall I sailed 32.9 km in 1.5 hours. I'm getting used to the Ray 122 and with enough downhaul on it, the 9.0 NP V8 actually was a lot of fun. Hard to believe that sail is a 2004: 11 years old.

The wind did shift from True North to west
out at the Georgian Bay buoy after my session

Canada Day sail