Get the MF snake off my MF sail !

Ok, I wasn't really angry. But I've never had a snake on my sail!

Short story: I was swimming back to shore as the thunderstorm got close, and I encountered a small water snake swimming toward me. I swam around it but as the sail went by it decided to hitch a ride on my sail. I swam with it as a passenger for a while, then shook it off the sail and we swam in opposite directions. I'd seen a snake years ago while windsurfing, and a fish and a bear too. This was the first time I had a snake as a passenger.

Long story: After finishing a full day of emails and calls, I headed out into what was supposed to be a late afternoon nicely building SW wind. And it did seem windy when I headed out. I rigged the 6.2 Duke and was hoping for some nice long runs on the 116 Freewave.

I started slogging upwind but could never get on a plane, even after shortening the boom 2cm to add more draft. So I stashed the board and sail and got the 7.0 NP V6 and Fanatic Ray 122 slalom board. But that didn't really get planing either in the 8-14 knot winds that my wife measured for me.

The track, 6.2 Duke and Freewave 116. Then 7.0 V6 and Ray 122.
The 5.4 and Techno foil worked the best at the end.

So I sailed that back to the shed and got out the Techno foil board and optimistically put the 5.4 Duke on it. The wind did seem to have finally picked up. And I got a bunch of nice runs in on the foil. Foiling with the 5.4 was the easiest and most in control I've been. That was my 14th time on the foil.

Speed details!

But now the thunderstorm that had been on the horizon was very close at hand. I could see the lightning so I sailed the foil back to the shed. I went to the point and got the 6.2 / Freewave and thought I'd get one more planing run in, but there really wasn't much wind, the 5.4 + foil was just that efficient. I slogged downwind, and then decided to swim the last bit as the lighting and thunder sounded close. Then I saw the snake... I should have had my GoPro!  The thunderstorm rolled through shortly after.

Just not enough wind.

Heading back on the 7.0 and Ray 122

The thunderstorm rolled through!

The storm from a distance

Rainbow after the storm

Beginners in the gale!

I headed out after a nice breakfast with our departing visitors and had a quick session on the Skate 108 and Duke 6.2. I tried one Vulcan and felt good about it, but then I didn't ever try another attempt. It seemed warmer than the 12.8 degrees that Garmin's website says on my GPS log.

Before lunch session, 6.2 Duke on Skate 108
Max speed 40 km/h, one Vulcan attempt
5.5 km in 37 minutes

The wind seemed to be dropping so I headed back for lunch with the new visitors who had just arrived! After lunch a bunch of us headed out into the bay looking for adventure.

Matt went out on the 3.5 youth sail on my old YPSI, and John was on the 4.7 Duke on my sister's old BIC Veloce 328. The wind was howling. I was having a great time on my 6.2 Duke sail and 108 Skate windsurf board.

Katie helped bring Matt upwind occasionally using the Seadoo. This was the first time the Seadoo was put into service that way and it worked exactly like I'd hoped. Matt had a successful time in the most challenging wind he's ever seen. Matt then headed back to the cottage with Katie so they could pick up my son at the marina leaving me to have more time in the wind!

Matt after a great first high wind session!

John rocking the Bic Veloce 328 in 25 knots after a 10 year windsurfing hiatus.

John was still out and the wind kept building. At one point, based on how my 6.2 was twisted and the fact that my two bolt universal came loose, I think there was a 30 knot wind blowing!

John getting back to shore after staying upwind all through the gale!

John got back though and was all smiles - the first time he'd sailed in a decade. Likely 20 years since he'd windsurfed on a small board and sail in solid wind!

After lunch session: Same Duke 6.2 and Skate 108
My max speed 45 km/h, some planing jibes and heli tacks
13 km in 47 minutes

The next evening the wind was completely gone, and we all had a lovely fire and banana boat dessert at the same spot. My new windsurfing simulator got some use from the kids!

My home made plywood windsurfing simulator!

Banana boat dessert roasting at the windsurfing launch pad!

Looking at the wind chart for the last week - we caught the windiest day of the week, if not the month!

The wind that day

And how it compared to the rest of the week!

Foiled again!

After my emails and calls, I headed out to get a Friday afternoon session in the wind that was predicted ahead of the thunderstorms!

I used the 6.2 Duke on the Techno 148 with the 36" Slingshot 2 Hoverfoil. After slogging upwind I caught some gusts and got going nicely. I did spend more time slogging than foiling, but that was OK because I'm actually finding the time up on the foil to be quite demanding.

My port side runs were very nice and I was really feeling some control. When I would get up too high, instead of sheeting out and still overfoiling, I would twist/push downwind with the front foot, and this would help both going faster and making the foil bite back down into the water. I think it helped that I had replaced the single back footstrap with two inboard straps.

Two of my starboard side runs ended with soft catapults. Here's the GPS track of my 13th foil session.

Foiling GPS trail. Around 12-15 knots of wind.
28 km/h top speed toward the end.

The top speed of 28 km/h was reached when I was getting ready to head back before the rain and possible lightning came. The whole session was less than an hour but still felt like serious exercise. I was wearing a shorty in the 23c humid wind. The water is much clearer now than it was 2 weeks ago. I also noticed the first monarch butterfly here in many years.

First monarch in many years!

During the thunderstorm, I worked on building my dryland windsurfing simulator. I put an old fishing seat swivel in between two sheets of plywood. More on that another day. After the storm and dinner, I caught this nice photo of my Canada 150 flag and the Fanatic banner I've been flying on the island.

Canadian guy windsurfing fanatic?

Drone footage on a low wind day

We had guests out on the island and brought the drone out for the first time. I'm definitely getting more comfortable flying it. There was very little wind though, which made for a nice picnic lunch and easy beginner windsurfing.

Here are the pictures.

Matt was out first!

The picnic site

Aerial view from 120 metres above

Matt heading out again on the 3.5 this time.

Michael out again 32 years after getting his first board!

The video turned out to be harder to edit than I expected. The DJI drone was set by default to save .mov (Apple) video files. It took forever to save a few as .mp4s using Handbrake so that I could edit them together. This new technology is cool but takes a lot of time!

My first drone movie from Canadian Guy on Vimeo.


After actually doing windsurfing lesson and a work conference call I went out and did some light wind freestyle. Duck tacks are pretty easy with a 4.5m sail. Michael's Mistral board will be put into service on the simulator I plan on building.

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!