First session on the Ray 122

47.3 km/h in the last gust!

After a bit of a wind drought, I finally managed to get up to the cottage and score a gusty north wind session.

My first time on the Fanatic Ray 122 was pretty good! I used the 9.0 NP V8 and the wind was ranging from 7 to 15 knots. (It had been much windier earlier in the day, but by the time work emails were done, and with travel time, rigging etc I was just getting the last gasps of the day

.)

The board gets on a plane pretty quickly, but with the 44cm fin I had a very hard time staying upwind. To be fair, I was spending over 1/2 my time slogging, so I'll have to wait to see if the upwind difficulty was due to the board, me, or the lack of wind.

The very short nose on the Ray 122 makes it much easier to ride at speed than the Bic Techno 148 I've been sailing as my big board for the last 5 years. The tail and mid section width is virtually the same, but the lack of nose on the Ray makes the board almost impossible to tack with a 9.0. I'll be working on my heli tacks more on this board!

There is way more foot steering feel when planing and I can tell that once I get used to it I'll definitely be getting some faster top speeds.  I caught a gust on my way back to my launch site and hit 47.3 km/h.  That is in 15 knot (28 km/h) wind or over 165% of the wind speed - or maybe it was a bit more of a gust?  In any case I was pretty excited to get that last bit of planing after 10 minutes of slogging.

Friday the 13th - At least I caught the last bit

I was getting worried that I might not get a chance to use my new board at all this year. The weather was around 14 degrees and sunny, but went down to 2 degrees overnight with frost warnings. While there might technically be one last week of summer, on Friday the 13th, it already felt like fall here. 

Was it worth it?

Just before our departure from the cottage, it looked like the wind was filling in a bit from the southwest.  I loaded up the boat and took out the Techno and my 7&9m sails.

The wind was reading 11-15 knots, and I got planing a few times.15 knots is 28 km/h, and I topped out at 37 km/h or 132% of the max wind speed.  I think that will become a new goal, trying to get to a higher ratio of max board speed vs. max windspeed.

I only sailed for a half hour, did 9.1 km and then headed in. From the moment I stopped sailing, it takes me just under 20 minutes to de-rig and get back to my family.  So 20 minutes set up, plane for just 15 of 30 minutes, then 20 minutes to return. After a week back in the city now, I think it was worth it.

I think it was worth it even if I only planed half the time.

A perfect Georgian Bay day

I rigged up the 7.0 for a change and it was the perfect sail for the 15-20 knot winds. This was the typical prevailing south west wind that makes the pine trees in Georgian bay look like the iconic "Group of Seven" paintings.

Stormy Weather - Varley - McMichael

I was lucky enough to be joined by another windsurfer (yeah Brad you are getting really good - look out Hatteras!) and we got to play cat and mouse chasing each other. I also got to drop by and visit with another cottager whose place I sail by regularly, but since he is American he is not there very often.

I think I'm ready for a faster board. I'm guessing my Techno is now 5 years old and deck is feeling a bit spongy. It is a great all round board but I'm wondering what a newer slalom board would be like. I have my eye on a Fanatic Ray 122 that would nicely fit into the board bag I have as it is the same width as the Techno.

The wind slowly dropped a bit before I could do a full 50 km and certainly my up and down wind ability was lacking later in the session as the wind died. In the first part of my track where I'm way south on the long reaches I could pretty much go wherever I wanted - I covered more territory than I ever have in a single session.  Max speed was 48 km/h with the stock Techno 48cm fin.

I was thinking about some blog comments I've read recently (Fish). First, I'm 48 years old so 2 hours is about all I can sail these days. During one waterstart my leg cramped up real bad but was fine a minute later. I do remember sailing for six hours once when I was much younger!

My second thought was now that my kids are older I don't feel bad leaving for a session - they are fine back at the cottage if they don't want to come out to the bay. Later in the weekend when we were planning our departure one of my sons even said "Dad, let's leave later in the day tomorrow so if it is windy you can go for a sail!"

48.5 km and 48 km/h top speed

Video from the 50 km/h session...

Scott and OJ sent me this video they took of my on that great Aug 4th north wind day...



Carl - North winds - August 4 2013 - 50 km/h from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

50 km/h + 50km

I generally don't like north winds. Here in Canada they are generally cold and gusty.  In the summer they aren't really cold, just not as warm as southwest winds.  But I've almost given up sailing when the wind is from the north because you can't really sail a short board when the wind sputters.  But Aug 4th was a fantastic north wind day for me.

That's 31 mph or 27 knots

I headed out not expecting much, but I managed to hit a personal best speed on the GPS. 50.3 km/h was the top speed.  I played with the unit the day before and realised there was a max speed screen option. Suddenly I kept looking at it to see if I could go faster in the gusts.  I don't think I've gone over 50 km/h in a long time.  But the north wind means there aren't big waves. And this was with the 148 Techno, the stock fin and my 9.0.

There was one gust that backwinded me at speed, and one that catupulted me after I spun out.  But I also had a lot of fun blasting around. Polarized lenses make a big difference for my confidence among the shoals of the 30,000 islands.  You can see on the track that I actually steered through some narrow gaps in the islands.

Then I went downwind to visit friends and convinced their visiting son to get out on his windsurfer for the first time in 2 years.  I'm not the only north wind snob apparently!  Once back upwind I realized that I wanted to sail at least 50 km to put in a good 2 hour effort.  Man was I sore the next morning - advil to the rescue.

Max speed on the GPS was 50.3 km/h 

My 50km track. A true north wind.
I underestimated my downwind / upwind angles and ability!

Weird weather

Well I got my first day of high speed windsurfing this summer.  Yes, on August 3rd.  It felt great to get in the straps and go fast, even if it was on the 148l Techno with a 9.0m sail.

I sailed for around 50 minutes, before the wind got fluky in the northeast corner of Georgian Bay due to the approaching thunderstorms.  The attached video shows the weather systems heading from the northwest, but the wind was coming from the west south west.  Max speed 43 km/h.

The weather is threatening my lovely support team!
My daughter is hiding in the board bag!

My sailing tracks, wind is WSW

Not much resolution from my blackberry camera.
Thanks Jen for the photo!

Lame father's day sailing

My father's day wish was to be at the cottage with my family but also to get a good windsurfing session in. The wind was definitely not predicted to be good the whole weekend, but on Saturday I could feel a bit of SW building. So I loaded my gear into the tin boat for my first Canadian session of the year. I packed my 7.0 and 9.0 sails, figuring that there was little chance of any shortboard sailing. Universal check, mastfoot check, extension check, booms check, masts check, harness check - I had everything I would need.

I then loaded the board and headed out the 2km to the open part of Georgian Bay. Indeed the wind was weak, and so I rigged the 9.0 and figured I might be able to pump onto a plane. After trimming the sail, putting on my wetsuit and harness, I opened the board bag. DOH! That is why it was lighter than I remembered! Damn I brought the Skate 108 not the Techno 148.

I couldn't face heading back to get the big board (and leave the sail rigged on a rock in the open) so I tried the Skate with the big sail. 40 litres of flotation make a big difference with a 9.0. I never did get planing and the 3 times I had to uphaul were pretty funny. The board sunk to almost waist deep!  When looking at the GPS trail, I was surprised to find that slogging is actually faster than walking.  Oh well, I hope to get some sailing in the summer.