The weather was gorgeous: about 82 ºF. Even though the water was only about 50º F, I decided not to don the whale blubber and use my “farmer John's” suit. I definitely felt the water when I fell in. I felt better after seeing Scott sweating in his 3 mm full wetsuit. Better a bit more cold during the occasional (I hoped) immersion than roasting the other 95% of the time.
The winds were lousy to awful. At times I was almost stalled. I could watch little bubbles float slowly down the length of my board and know that I could easily swim faster than this. I made it back and chatted with Jehuda, who was rigging an 8.3 for his longboard. I noted to Scott that my wife's car was parked near ours, and Scott said he'd had a nice conversation with Kirsten. This meant my wife was somewhere about. If I screwed up, that would be fodder for tonight's dinner conversation.
The wind picked up a bit, so I headed out again. The wind picked up quite a bit more and I suddenly found myself planing. I'm learning to control the Kona better while in a plane. I'm getting steering down and moving into the straps. They still seem too far down the board, so I still must be doing something wrong.
After I tacked, I heard some kid from shore screaming for his daddy. Man, that kid kept calling and calling. What was wrong with the father? Why didn't he answer? Somebody else was doing that super loud whistle when you stick two fingers into your mouth. As I sailed away from the Riverfront Green, it occurred to me that that boy sounded a lot like Gabriel, and that Kirsten can do that super-duper whistle. (And that another member of the family can be pretty thick-headed.) Hmmm. I tacked around and saw my family, with Kirsten dutifully pushing the double stroller with Guinevere and Miranda. They waved frantically. I waved back, finally they must have thought. Gabriel was happy.
Jehuda and I did a nice sail to the northwest. He was planing much of the time and I was on a plan some of the time. I need to break my habit of automatically spilling wind whenever I feel the least overpowered. I need to get more comfortable with harnessing it and putting some more weight onto the boom. We turned around near the industrial park north of Annsville circle and sailed back.
A nice day on the water.
2 comments:
Ian, I got to sail a Kona for an hour or so Sunday in 8 to 17 mph winds. I used a 7.8m sail. I didn't use the daggerboard much. The board seemed to be a little tough to get on plane and the transition from displacement mode to shortboard planing mode was a little strange at first. Hanging most of my weight on the boom through the harness made the transition much smoother. When sailing in planiing conditions. I believe your mast base should be in the rear third of the mast track. I don't know how yours is set but that might make getting in the straps feel more comfortable. If your sail is rigged right, your harness lines are set properly (equal pull through front and back hand) and you are in the straps you will begin to crave that added power. You will find that the rig will feel more stable the faster you go and the sailing will take less effort. When you get to that point trying to spill power will be a thing of the past.
Outdrsmn,
Thanks for the feedback. I may just be hesitant to get further back on the board. That's probably a bad habit. It was easier to get in the straps on my shortboard. I'm going to move the mast base back further, even though it is already in the bottom half.
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