When the west wind dies

Before foiling is was super frustrating when the wind died. I’d be out with a huge sail and a small board and had to struggle to get back. With foiling it turns out to be easy to get home, even when the wind drops off.

My track looking from the west. One nice 4.5 km run in there.

I had a quick 17 km, 1 hour session after work and before heading to the marina to pick up guests. I took the 140 Stingray board with the 76 cm foil and 7.0 NP V8. The wind was due west 11 knots with the max for the day at 15 knots. I was able to consistently pump onto a plane, and made a few upwind tacks. I saw my buddy out on his sailboat south of me and headed down to the Henvey Inlet again. I had a 4.5 km run with just a moment off the foil due to a small lull. But at the end of the 4.5 km run, the wind had gotten pretty light and after pumping like crazy to get going on two reaches the wind was down to likely 5-8 knots.

Speed chart with a nice bit over 30 km/h

I did set another top speed foil record for myself. 34.6 km/h! I do like that feature of the APProSail garmin app as it gives me top speed during the session.

I sailed back slowly, enjoying the nice warm air and water. I should have taken the 9.0 sail, instead of a shorty wetsuit! I still made it back in time and am looking forward to the long weekend.