Wednesday night racing at Toronto Windsurfing Club

This was the first night of 2017 that I made it to the Toronto Windsurfing Club for the Wednesday night race series. I'd tried a few times earlier in the summer but either the wind or my schedule didn't work out.

The Kona is a fun board, but there are only a few of us who sail Kona regularly. Most of the fleet of 40 or so boards are raceboards which are much faster and the top windsurfers often do 2 laps in the time it takes me to do one lap which is humbling!

On this night it was quite low wind so the only other Kona was 81 year old John Darling. I had a bad start and was way at the back of the fleet and easily beaten by the veteran windsurfer. I would actually love to be the 81 year old someday beating 52 year olds! What an inspiration.

Last year I came 7th out of the fleet of 14 Kona sailors. With Bob, John, Chris, Andree and the other being such good sailors, attendance to help your overall score is critical.

My 2016 TWC Kona results 7th out of 14.

The TWC website has a host of information

After work foilboard vs freestyle board

After finishing all my work I headed out to finish my shelves in the shed.

But the gusty north wind had picked up, and so I headed out for the first time on the 36" Slingshot foil mast. It was actually very windy, and after my 4 x 2km runs in 30 minutes I was bushed. I was getting really long runs but my legs were so tense as I was on a knife's edge trying to keep speed and balance.

I did start feeling that I understand what the foil is doing below me and didn't overfoil once which was comforting.

Way more time planing on the foil than the freestyle Skate 108.

After the foiling runs it seemed windy enough to be on my Skate 108 - but I was wrong. I only got going in two gusts. I'm pretty sure that foiling is the better way to enjoy time on the water in marginal conditions.

And the shed is organized now!

After the session I put away all the boards (including my kids' board) on my new rack. Pretty excited about that!

Organizing the shed - 10mm bolts & 2 runs on the 5.4

The wind was out of the Northeast, which is not a great direction. Gusty and offshore, I normally don't even bother.

So I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning out the old shed and making room for my boards and sails. I started installing a board rack which makes storing the foil board much easier.

I set up the Techno with the 36" Slingshot mast. I was happy that the 10mm hex bolts I purchased fit perfectly into the bolt holes on the BIC Techno 148. See photo.

NEW - Using 45mm M10 Hex bolts means the screws aren't sitting proud anymore!

OLD - The heads of the big bolts supplied with the
Hoverfoil would sit at the top of the custom collars I built.

The bolts in the fuselage of the Slingshot Hoverfoil had seized somewhat, so I lubricated them again and didn't tighten them as much this time. I will try to remember that I need to loosen them when storing for extended periods. I got a good reminder in the Slingshot blog post on the subject of corrosion.

Around 7pm I decided to head out after all. I tried the 5.4 Duke on the Freestyle Skate 108 in the cold gusty winds. I did get two runs in, but called it a day pretty quickly. No foiling today.

Got planing twice!

I'm looking forward to a classic west wind bay day - likely in August!

One foil run from the NE

My 12th foiling session was super short.

The wind was blowing 3-15 out of the NE.

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I only got up on the foil once and only went 250 metres but it was fun and made the 1/2 hour session on the water worthwhile. I had my best friend Geoff watching from shore which was very nice.

I really need to find time to set the board up with the 36" mast.

In international news, Sebastian Kornum has been very competitive in foil competitions. He averaged 24 knots during a recent European competition. I only barely hit 15 knots so far.

Here's a photo I took with Sebastian in 2009 when he easily won the HIHO race. I kind of knew he was going to be a winner in the future. I didn't predict the foiling part though!

At the HIHO 2009: I got a photo with Sebastian Kornum
I knew he would be big in this sport!

Quick Friday night session

There wasn't really any wind predicted but when we got up north indeed there was a reasonable SW convection wind blowing.

I raced out and got the Duke 6.2 sail and the Fanatic Freewave 116 board. I managed to get a bunch of runs just blasting back and forth. I was also having fun doing a few duck jibes, upwind 360s etc. and my sail feel improved when I shortened the boom by 2cm to get more curvature in the sail. I'm not sure whether I like it more or the Skate 108 for blasting, I need to do a bit more back to back sailing on those two.

The first 2/3 of the session was on the Duke 6.2 and Freewave 116
The last 1/3 was on the NP V6 7.0 and faster Ray 122

After the wind died a bit I took out the NP V6 7.0 and used the Ray 122 for the first time this year. I got it up to 44 km/h on one run.

An image of the 2014 Fanatic Freewave 96, I have the 116 - for waves

Image of my 2013 Fanatic Ray 122 - for speed

The Ray is a fast board with so much relative stability due to its 76 cm width. Even though it is only 1 cm wider than the Techno, I'm kind of tempted to try it with the foil some time!

I think this was the first session this year that I didn't try foiling at all. Overall an hour and 45 minutes of clean windsurfing fun.

Another windsurf teaching success: Keep the front hand on the mast.

I really like teaching windsurfing.

My Sunday windsurfing school student was Matt, who had actually windsurfed a bit before and is also a sailor. But he wasn't sure he'd be able go out and get back as it has been quite a while since he has windsurfed.

So I gave him a refresher on land and then sent him out with the 4.2 on my 35 year old YPSI Wayler which is still a classic beginner board. Matt quickly realized it is only unstable until you put the centreboard down!

Perfect form from my student for going back and forth.
I find it works best keeping the front hand on the mast for beginners.

To me, the front hand on the mast is the most crucial part of teaching someone to windsurf. It means that the mast stays vertical above the centreline of the board, and as such the board just naturally wants to go across the wind or even slightly upwind. Then the beginner (in German they are called Aufsteiger - stepper upper) can get back easily to where they started. I usually keep the beginner using the front hand on the mast for their entire first lesson (or lessons as required). But Matt was such a pro I gave him permission to use his front hand on the boom after several runs. He did start going downwind a bit too much right after he began having both hands on the boom, but easily made it back upwind when he was done.

Coming right back to where he started!
(Didn't need a SeaDoo rescue after all)

Congratulations Matt!

I'm hoping to build a windsurfing simulator soon, those always help with teaching too.

How to carry a windsurf foil board

Another weekend, and another chance to foil. The southwest wind hovered from 10-15 knots all day, and the 6.2 wasn't quite enough to get going.

While I was carrying the board back and forth to the water several times, I finally figured out how to carry the foil board. I had tried my traditional footstrap and universal joint method and wound up breaking one footstrap. I had also carried the board on my head, but that kind of hurts. And carrying the board from the foil mast doesn't work well either.

My wife got this shot of my new carrying technique, you hold onto the foil fuselage and a footstrap!

My new wind foil board carrying technique

Then, just as I was ready to call it a day, the wind picked up and was blowing 13-17. My wife got some nice video:

11th wind foiling session from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.

I got a number of runs, but many ended in low impact catapults. 32km/h top speed! Here's the chart.

A good number of foil runs in my 26 minute session.