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| Member Details | Session Description |
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| Owner:
mas Member Member#: 7693 Location: Registered: 29-06-2008 Diary Entries: 381 |
14th July 2019 Windsurfing: Bradfield Wind Direction: N Wind Stength: F2--3 Surf / Sea State: flat Air Temperature: warm Sea Temperature: warm Weather: Sunny / cloud Max Speed: 19.45 (knots - unless stated otherwise) Distance Covered: 6.1 (Nautical Miles - unless stated otherwise) Session number 5 on foil - but 4 as had a no wind at all session. In those 4 days I probably have had no more that 10 mins flying if you add it all up. Whereas with fin sailing, you mainly plane most sessions. All sailing has been at the gusty reservoir where the gusts last all of 10 secs, and you have to pump the gusts, front strap - take off, lean forward to level up and fly with the gust! Then pretty much either you have to turn to avoid the bank and horrible long grass or you missed the gusts. So my 5th session foiling and first foil at Bradfield on the vast open waters was heaven. North means you can run parallel to the beach. Alas the wind was very light but some gusts. In fact lots of foilers out and 1/2 were lifting / flying when I arrived around 9.45 am. Rigged 8.5 Goya Mark and 147 SB Ultrasonic / RRD foil, which is a nice big light wind slalom board, not foil ready but has a stainless brace on the top deck to spread the load. If any non foiling bd users are out there curious as to where the load is - here is the scientific fact. I have a gasket between the RRD foil flange (mid tuttle head) and the board. That gasket now needs replacing as the FRONT part of the flange has cut in the gasket. That means the FRONT of the flange max loads UP pushing into the board, pushing the front fin bolt UP - logically that means the REAR bolt pulls DOWN, and in fact the back of the flange has hardly marked the gasket. So the REAR fin bolt shelf needs to be thicker or strengthened - or just bolt to the top deck - utilising the natural strength of the deck with a load spreader. Only time will tell lol! Have learnt more on every session and today was no exception - it was keeping sheeted in on gusts but leaning forwards to avoid leaving the water. Yep more flight time under my belt. The poxy wind dropped most of the time so had very few fights. Breached 3/4 times, crashing in my sail and broke a batten. However am now able to pump up on a reasonable gusts and not having to worry about banks and turning was a real bonus! Colsey / James was flying well in FA wind with 10 and 9.2 metres, with Andy Nick getting flights leaving me and Squiz picking up the bits and pieces. Jason was the only regular fin man also trying to get scraps! Was going to swop to Slingshot foil with the mega 84cm front wing, but DC said waste of money as I was flying off gusts in 10kts so no point. Just increase sail size for more power to take off and longer flights - in these very light winds until have learnt. The complete opposite to my original intentions so good advice. Happy with mast foot position, but will ditch the waste harness for a couple of sessions and go back to my normal seat, as more comfy. Also will rig my Gaastra 9.2 Phantom instead. I had one quite long flight and slowly lost speed as wind dropped. I was gutted as I was settled and heeling nicely to windward. As DC and James said sheet in hard with the big kit and that's true. Every time I sheet out - thinking lower the height as I was about to breech - I should sheet in hard lean forward and take the speed! Top speed was 19.45 kts in say 10kts, so definitely true. Am now controlling the roll with heel and toes, so that’s the next positive today and pumped up on a few gusts, timing it nicely, so well happy. Giving it 4 stars as burnt just under 1700 calories with heart rate peaking 135 bpm for the 1.5 hrs session, which is a good gym session. Roll on next foil session - ditching the fin at Bradders for sure unless its howling. Hope Colsey or James will ride my kit and give some feedback if I really need to invest in a dedicated foil board. |
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