Friday afternoon windsurfing

Friday afternoon before the long Canada day weekend and work emails had slowed to a trickle. There was a bit of SW flow so I headed to the island. Katie and Matt were watching me head out to the point and took a photo from a cool angle!

Getting ready to head out!

The Skate 108 and 6.2 weren't quite enough to get going up onto a plane. So I took the Techno with the wind foil and using the 6.2 sail I could pump onto the foil from time to time. I like using the footstraps on the board to control the foil under the board and started to regret not wearing my harness. My arms were pretty tired after just my 3rd run on the foil. I haven't had a bad crash yet on the foil after 3 sessions - so I think next time I'll actually wear my harness and see if I can keep some longer runs going.

The windsurfing storage locker is starting to fill up with gear as I get more rigged for the season!

The windsurf locker filling up!

And in other news, I'm happy to say that our area is cleared for drone flying. I should be able to use my father's day present soon. Stay tuned for that!

Map of the few restricted drone flying areas on northern Georgian Bay

Quick Bay Day

I wasn't really expecting wind, but it was wafting from the SW around 17-22 knots. So I went out and rigged up the 6.2 with the Skate 108.

The wind was nice but a bit more gusty than a normal SW. The ups and downs reminded me of the post frontal north winds we get. But it was so warm I didn't mind the odd slogging periods.

I tried two Vulcan attempts, one had a good slide. Many chuckles as I did planing jibes and some speed runs. I hit 44.5 km/h which is pretty good for a mildly powered day - and on the Freestyle Skate which isn't a speed board.

I started thinking that I'm going to be windsurfing out here for many years to come. And smiling about that.

Overall 29.5 km over 1.5 hours.

View of the session looking SW into the wind.

Speed chart shows some longer slogging periods.

How to twice McGyver a broken boom!

While there wasn't supposed to be any wind this weekend, late on Sunday afternoon a bit of northerly flow kicked in. I loaded up the boat with my low wind gear and headed out for my first session in Canada this year. 4 weeks ago there were still icebergs floating here in Georgian Bay!

On my way out I was looking at my boom which has seen years of service and noticed that the boom end is a bit worn from dragging on the rocks. In thinking about it now, that boom must be at least 14 years old, since Fiberspar got out of the windsurfing business in 2000...

I rigged up the 9.0 and the 122 Ray and started out. I got one run out into the bay and turned around. On the way back I felt something give as I was adjusting the out-haul and in an instant I was in the water. The aluminium front end of my well used carbon Fiberspar boom had fatigued and given out.

As I floated in the water (which was only a wee bit warmer than I expected), I started to worry for a minute. I was around 2 km from my start point and that would be a very long swim. And since it was around 5pm on a Sunday, there wasn't likely to be very much boat traffic to provide assistance.

Luckily I calmed down and remembered some self-rescue ideas from discussions I've had with fellow windsurfers over the years. I started by storing the broken boom arm, fishing it through the far footstraps which I wouldn't be using. I did think about just tossing the broken end, but am glad I was enviro conscious and didn't.

I flipped the working boom arm over and re-attached it so it would be on the right side for my ride home. It worked very well and I was 2/3 of the way back and started planing! I was going so well and I was so close I decided to try hooking in! Well that was a mistake, as the much weaker single boom arm was overpowered broke under my weight right by the harness lines. I was back in the water.

This repair was a bit harder. But since I luckily still had the extra boom arm still with me, I was able to lash it to the newly broken boom using the uphaul rope in the front and the adjustable outhaul lines in the back. But now trying to get the sail up without an uphaul line was too hard, and waterstarting the floppy sail was also impossible for me.

Then I remembered that I always have some extra line attached to the back of my harness. I used that line to make a quick temporary uphaul, and presto I was on my way. Here's a shot of my McGyver'd boom.

The twice repaired boom. First the boom head broke, then the middle of the other arm!

So I'm looking for a new carbon 250cm standard diameter boom with adjustable outhaul lines. Any recommendations?