Boardsailing
by May and Bill
Boardsailing adventures, here
(near our home in Stuart, Florida) and all-about.
Monday, 08 October, 2007: - Ms.
May and Mr. Bill's 12th wedding anniversary...
- AND we find 'just enough' wind for Ms. May to go boardsailing
on our 'BIG' 6.0 - 3-cam Neil Pryde 'V8' sail and Mr. Bill's BIG (but
old) Tropix 9' 2" board (floaty) - Anyway... -
Ms. May's video here
(About 3.3 megabytes of ...mov file (and some windy sounds) -
well worth it! ) --- Mr. Bill took some video of his huggly-bunch on
our anniversary and here's one of her better gybes...
Sunday, 30th September,
2007:
Today was a 'good' (but not 'great' day) on the water...
Mr. Bill went
out - first, on the 5.0 - and it was TOO MUCH! - but then - later
he went on
the 4.5 and it was 'just right' (if you discount 'slogging' all the way
out to the channel! -
The above image includes yesterday's Kiteboarding from the US Sailing
Center (in red at the top of the image) as well as today's boardsailing
at 'West Island' (in the bottom of the image; the track-log (from the
GPS) in purple; - the 'blue-lines' in the track-log at the bottom are
the 'farthest and nearest' distance measurement(s) for each track - as
always - click on the image for a LARGER version!
on the other hand - A BAD DAY on the water is always BETTER than a GOOD
DAY in the office...
AND today was the first day to try-out my new(erestest) "Tuttle Tanged"
Curtis Fin (only 10" long but VERY nicely shaped!) - custom made for me
- it only took about 4-5 months but we won't 'go-there'?! This
fin (and the new "Tuttle Box" in the (almost 30 years) OLD "Express
Air" board make a wonderful combination! - you can see more about
'Fin Things' at the VERY BOTTOM of this web-page - click on the link
for "Fin Things" there.
in any case - it were good - if puffy / holes in the wind - but still
good -
BUT With Ms.May's blisters (from yesterday) and the fact that Mr. Bill
was on the 4.5 - it was too windy for Ms. May - but perhaps tomorrow
will be more to Ms. May's liking...
IF you are INTERESTED _ Mr. Bill shot about 15 minutes of digital video
today - (about 3.5 GIG a bytes) - and he'll be editing this - and HOPE
to be able to put a short-video (50 megabytes - 100 megabytes) here,
later in the week - Don't hold your breath, though!
Thursday,
14 June, 2007: - finished (at last) the repair / installation
of the new Tuttle Designed Skeg-Fin-box in the OLD (25 years)
"Powernautics Express Air" 2.70 meter long sailboard... - anyway - a
couple of pictures to 'commemorate' ( small / large ). NOW if we can
just get ONE MORE 20 knot day before the wind-season deteriorates!...
Sunday, 03 June, 2007: - We
both went boardsailing on Friday, 1 June, (after going to bed at 03:00
a.m. as a result of Ms. May's LATE "Ted" flight from Chicago)...
Friday's boardsailing was 'slog for an hour' then the wind REALLY
picked-up and Ms. May got back o.k., and Mr. Bill broke his boom front
and had to 'drag' home to the beach from the midst of the channel...
ANYWAY _ I think they'll give me a new piece to replace the broken piece (you can see where it
broke, right along the very left side of the image - in the 'hinge'
area). The booms themselves are just fine, and the 'lever' part is o.k. (picture is kind of BIG)
too.
We'll see - and also this week I should get a new
skeg-box for my broken (25 year old
Express Air) board, and a new skeg, too?! -
Friday, 25th May, 2007: - I
sent back my DaKine boardsailing harness,
today, for replacement. I'd gotten an e-mail from them saying
that the 'failure' (or larger image) was definitely 'materials
and workmanship' so I'll get a brandy-new-harness from them. -
Great deal, but it will mean 2 weeks of no boardsailing (unless I use
one of my Kiteboarding harnesses)... - but that's not a 'bad-deal' -
I've got more boardsailing gear and kiteboarding gear so depending on
the wind I can still do either?
MORE WIND TODAY (Thursday, 24 May, 2007)
- was NOT as good as yesterday,
but because of several 'broken things' I spent the 2 1/2 hours
today on Ms. May's OLD (Seatrend 2.69 meter long) flat bottomed /
Tuttle tanged-skeg (4" fore and aft, 13" deep (no where NEAR as good an
'up-wind' skeg), The supposed 15-18 knots was NOT there but
on the other hand I went much further afield, ran aground (again)
several times (with a 3" deeper skeg) and generally worked MUCH HARDER,
though I feel less tired (on the other hand the bloody-calluses /
blisters (especially on my left hand) are MUCH GRANDER,
today... I spent quite some time 'slogging' back to the
park on this 89 liter board. It's supposed to blow 22 knots
but that's after dark. Tomorrow still looks good about 11:30 til
about 2:30 - maybe we'll try it again then? Saturday and Sunday look
'boring' - so maybe I'll go to Groveland and fly my new glider some
(this assumes it arrives today or tomorrow?)
No pictures, today, sorry; also didn't take the GPS with
me. However, I went much further east and south than
the track-log below shows. This board / skeg combination do not
point nearly as well as the other board / skeg.
Did, however, run into some photographer who works for the Palm Beach
Sun (or some newspaper) and was reporting on and taking pictures of the
'new park'... - Maybe he'll send me some images - and if he does, I'll
post them here.
MORE AWESOME WIND TODAY (Wednesday, 23
May, 2007) - was even
better than yesterday - except I broke my skeg (it was ONLY 19 years
old) and my NEWLY INSTALLED "Skeg-Box" - UGH UGH UGH I guess
I'll
have to go kiteboarding tomorrow, huh? it'll take more than
overnight to fix this thing, plus I'll have to order a new skeg-box -
since this one broke (and it was MONDO BIG / HEAVY) I'm reluctant to
put another one in just like this one - plus - I guess I'll have to get
a new skeg, too, since the new skeg-box will not fit this skeg?
anyway - here's a small-version of the track-log - and you can - as
always - click on it for the larger version...
AWESOME WIND TODAY (Tuesday, 22
May, 2007) - and it was LATE (after I
went to see my eye-guy - and get a 'good-report' and the 'promise' of
more 'freebie' contacts when I lose the ones I have (that I only use
boardsailing and kiteboarding) - and I ordered some new glasses for
hang-gliding (they are NOT Polaroid - so I CAN see my instruments?!
ANYWAY _ the wind today was terrific (maybe even better than terrific)
and it's not supposed to drop below 16 knots for the next 72 hours
(gusts to 30-35 knots) - so - well - we'll have to do something about
the blisters on my hands and my right foot doesn't fit very well in the
foot-strap ? Maybe tomorrow I'll do some kiteboarding - and
give other parts of my body a chance to wear-out too!
AND I went in a 'new place' - this new 'park' underneath the west end
of the new-bridge (over the Intracoastal Waterway (quite near where our
old house was on "Sewalls Point). This is a WONDERFUL
small park (parking for about 40 cars (some in the shade (at certain
times of the day (see the above picture of the Toyota Mini-Van - parked
in the shade!). Parking is less than 20
meters from car to the
water. Recently planted grass to rig your sails
on.... - Pictures taken on Wednesday, 23rd. -
a (small) track-log here - click the small image above for a
much-bigger-version. You can see a LOT of sand-bars -
only SOME of which I ran aground on, (some I did NOT run aground
on) - but the tide was going DOWN DOWN DOWN in the almost two
hours I was on the water - so - well - maybe next time I go I'll go at
HIGH TIDE?!
anyway - excellent wind, today - more reports later!
me
FinThings (<=== not
necessarily for 'public' consumption - fairly technical - read at your
own risk)
last updated: 13:47
p.m. on Tuesday, 09 October, 2007rga; revID: 1k
(in
Stuart, Florida)
