Maybe!

I was watching this guy unwrap a brand new sail, rigged it tuned it, then lays it on the ground to get the board.
Gust comes in smashes it onto to this pruned tree which impales it in about 5 places. The guy, almost in tears, derigs, packs up goes home.

Zed said...

First sail in a while, rigged up, a few chickies on the beach watching, jumped on, hooked in, catapulted straight through the sail. I'd been on the water 6 seconds. Can you beat that??

love your work zed.
i had a close one yesterday. crowded shore, 1st beach start of the day, hopped on, thrown forward landing on the boom on my just healed ribs. bruised but no breaks but stood there for a few minutes freakin out as it felt like id done them again

Can't beat Zed's but prob a few guys that have done similar to me,

I took off for a long lunch, flew home, packed gear, got to spot where a couple of guys were on the water, rigged my smallest sail (30kt wind!) and decided to give it a bit extra downhaul, sail exploded! Packed up & went home...the guys didn't even know I showed up.

Zed said...

First sail in a while, rigged up, a few chickies on the beach watching, jumped on, hooked in, catapulted straight through the sail. I'd been on the water 6 seconds. Can you beat that??

LOL!!! Thats pretty good,

Mine is having my first sail on my brand new Ezzy 5.8m, racing Elmo to shore, pass him on the windward side of the channel marker, wind drops out, top of sail impales itself on jaggered edges of top of channel marker, and every little move to release the sail, cut deeper shreds into the panels

First sail on Saturday in over 2 months because of busted foot and lack of wind.
It felt weired. Like learning again. Splatting gybes, kooking jumps and muffing bottom turns.
No broken gear, just a reality check

saw Jez from 2nd wind pull out a newish Arrows race sail few years back.


an hour and many expletives later he packed up and went home.


everytime he attempted to rig it, cambers kept popping off.

A long time ago (in the one piece mast era) , I was in such a rush to get on the water that the connection between rig and board, as it turned out, was not secure.

Not long into the session, the rig and board separated after a chop hop with me coming unstuck as well. First instinct was to swim to the board, and then paddle over to the rig.

First task was successfully completed, however the rig sunk, as I think the one piece mast was not sealed at both ends, and so filled with water and sent the rig off to Davy Jones's locker.

So I lost a mast, boom, sail and extension in one go!

Cheers

MikeyS said...

divaldo said...

A few years back I drove for an hour to get a quick sail in at Goolwa, in my haste to get the car packed I packed two mast tips instead of the base and top of one mast. drove home

And thus, the RDM mast was invented!

No, I only had both tips, one a 400 and one a 430 rdm

A long long time ago in a far away land , well Ocean Grove actually, I tried my hand at Wave sailing.
Jumped on the board, grovelled out, got cleaned up by the first section of shore break, mast drives into the bottom and breaks. Bugger, my day over.

My mate gets out and has a good sail. As he is carrying his board and rig back up he is pissing himself laughing and having a fat old time at my expense. A gust hits him and swings his rig around straight into a light pole. Mast breaks.

Guess who had the last laugh, now thats Karma!!!!!!

Couple of years ago I was in such a rush to get out on the ocean I forgot to screw my mast base in properly. First jump I looked down while in mid air to see my mast no longer attached to my board. Was too stunned to let go of the boom so when I landed the bottom of the mast went straight through my board.

Swam in for 30min, walked 1km back up the beach. Went home and sulked.

Not as spectacular as the other stories but here it goes, got to the beach back in the old days when the car park was full of people rigging up and chatting before walking their gear down to the beach. I rigged up my sail and I had a small crowd gather chatting around my rig as I set it up. A couple of them were prodding me about taking so long, well I did have to finish my pre-sail cigarette before heading off. Flicked the ciggy down and away from me and it did this vertical boomerang trick with the wind and landed smack on the sail. There was this great hush among the spectators as we all stared at it and in nano seconds it dissapeared through the sail and onto the ground to the roar of laughter from all around. It proves that smoking and windsurfing doesn't mix.

Was amped to get down the beach, had brand new speed board on roof along with wave board. Drove out of my street onto main road only to see speed board slide off racks onto road. Fully laden beer truck ran straight over it. Never realised how many people you know see things like that happen.

Back in those days (25 years ago) went for my 4 weeks windsurfing break at Garda Lake Italy, drove 650Km from Switzerland, after 1 day sailing put my HyFly 700 on the board rack in the caravan park, next day found the fin and fin box stolen.....[}:)] checked local dealer had fin but no box, would not sell me one frome his hire fleet... begged for hours said would order one and just had to wait one week. Went back next day... hired a board for the day removed box and fin brought the board back and appologized for "loosing the fin and box" payed for the damage, I thaught the guy was going to kill me...... had a excellent sailing vacation!!!!! but removed box and fin every nite after sailing.

Seems I'm amongst friends.

Packed gear in car. Drove 500m down road. Stopped at RBT. Lady pulls up behind and urgently tells constable something. Constable comes to me. Says lady saw something fly off roof just up the road. Bugger. Didn't strap boards on roof. Drove back to pick them up. No boards. Someones nicked them in the three mins since I'd lost them. Drive to police station to fill out report. Call insurance to find not covered. Went home and sulked. Call later from Sam windsurf n snow. A customer picked them up. Call guy who picked them up. Guy brings boards to house. Boards in perfect nick in their covers. Sweet.

Tom said...

Couple of years ago I was in such a rush to get out on the ocean I forgot to screw my mast base in properly. First jump I looked down while in mid air to see my mast no longer attached to my board. Was too stunned to let go of the boom so when I landed the bottom of the mast went straight through my board.

Swam in for 30min, walked 1km back up the beach. Went home and sulked.

Sounds familiar...A few years ago, I went for a roadtrip down sth and was looking for a place to sail around Ulladullah. Ended up lugging my gear down a long boardwalk/stairs and 200m along the beach, board on head, everything tied to the top of the board(hello chiro:); rigged up; headed out through a bit of choppy swell and fell off trying to gybe. Spent the next 20mins trying to screw my base in PROPERLY, in the swell, with a kiter making it VERY obvious that I'd broken down within 2mtrs of the only decent line out there. Very nearly contaminated the water too when i saw a fin break the surface about 30mtrs away. Luckily it was only a pack of dolphins.

Also had my board fly off the racks on my ute at 110kph and land in the middle of the road. Luckily it was a quiet back road, and amazingly it was undamaged. Damned synthetic rope(and 2nd rate knot tying skills:)