Waterstarting in the footstraps!

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Wet Willy
Wet Willy
TAS
2317 posts
TAS, 2317 posts
18 Dec 2008 12:27am
Woo Hoo! From persistent rain and no wind despite a good forecast, to a HONKING afternoon (and possibly the next few days)!

Today for the first time I managed the daring feat of waterstarting with my feet in the straps, hooking in halfway up and thus going from zero to fully planing in about one second!

This means I was overpowered, right?

Damn that was fun!
windwarning
windwarning
VIC
600 posts
VIC, 600 posts
18 Dec 2008 12:32am
ya the man son
jp747
jp747
1553 posts
1553 posts
17 Dec 2008 11:05pm
Wet Willy said...

Woo Hoo! From persistent rain and no wind despite a good forecast, to a HONKING afternoon (and possibly the next few days)!

Today for the first time I managed the daring feat of waterstarting with my feet in the straps, hooking in halfway up and thus going from zero to fully planing in about one second!

This means I was overpowered, right?

Damn that was fun!

javascript:insertsmilie('')
what happened on the next few secs that'll determine if you were overpowered!
mineral1
mineral1
WA
4564 posts
WA, 4564 posts
17 Dec 2008 11:22pm
Wet Willy said...

Woo Hoo! From persistent rain and no wind despite a good forecast, to a HONKING afternoon (and possibly the next few days)!

Today for the first time I managed the daring feat of waterstarting with my feet in the straps, hooking in halfway up and thus going from zero to fully planing in about one second!

This means I was overpowered, right?

Damn that was fun!


Good fun when the conditions are just right.
Reckon I know how you feel, as I have managed it a few times myself
westhammer
westhammer
WA
507 posts
WA, 507 posts
18 Dec 2008 12:01am
Nofin darin about it willyboy its just the easy way to take off in the rest zone ..Practice ya hooked in super windy inside waterstarts regular and prepare your self for the outbound super charge
Wet Willy
Wet Willy
TAS
2317 posts
TAS, 2317 posts
18 Dec 2008 2:05am
I did it 3 times! Wicked! But the rest of my sailing degenerated fast ... the wind picked up to about 16-18 knots (awesome for Singapore), quite choppy, and I was using an 8.5m sail. Just a little bit too big, methinks.
westhammer
westhammer
WA
507 posts
WA, 507 posts
18 Dec 2008 12:56am
Fark me willy avent used that size since sweet sixteen...mite get back to you on that one day.
pepe47
pepe47
WA
1382 posts
WA, 1382 posts
18 Dec 2008 9:31am
Hey, take my hat off to you WW, water start with an 8.5m sail, well done. I recall trying to water start with a 7.5 at cervantes, cammed sail, at the head of the sail just getting some air under it, when a wave broke over me and the sail...took me 5 mins to stop swearing [}:)]
Wet Willy
Wet Willy
TAS
2317 posts
TAS, 2317 posts
18 Dec 2008 3:01pm
pepe47 said...

Hey, take my hat off to you WW, water start with an 8.5m sail, well done. I recall trying to water start with a 7.5 at cervantes, cammed sail, at the head of the sail just getting some air under it, when a wave broke over me and the sail...took me 5 mins to stop swearing [}:)]


Dude, I've waterstarted a 9.8 ...which means I should've been using a smaller sail!
jp747
jp747
1553 posts
1553 posts
18 Dec 2008 11:03pm
pepe47 said...

Hey, take my hat off to you WW, water start with an 8.5m sail, well done. I recall trying to water start with a 7.5 at cervantes, cammed sail, at the head of the sail just getting some air under it, when a wave broke over me and the sail...took me 5 mins to stop swearing [}:)]


sounds familiar for me once [}:)]
Wet Willy
Wet Willy
TAS
2317 posts
TAS, 2317 posts
19 Dec 2008 1:47am
The thing that I've been finding tricky is flipping the sail in the water...sometimes as you flip it, the wind just slams it down hard, mast first. Other times the sail flips well but is pushed down into the water anyway. And sometimes it flips and stays up; what's the secret to getting this right?



BTW here's the forecast for Singapore:



THs is updated daily, so if you are checking it tonght, you will see that we might get up to 26 knots tomorrow! But 20 will do nicely!

(Where's Singapore? OK, look at the lines; go to the centre, turn left, somewhere just below and left of the centre is a tiny green dot. Between Indonesia and peninsular Malaysia. That's it. On that tiny island is a club where about 200-300 people store their boards and sails....in 1984 there was a club with 1,400 members, each with theor own board, making it (so they say) the biggest windsurf club in the world. FYI. )

WIND WIND WIND!!! After all these weeks and months of desperation sailing!!!



Formula? What's that?
nebbian
nebbian
WA
6277 posts
WA, 6277 posts
19 Dec 2008 12:03am
Good luck mate, enjoy the wind
puffin
puffin
235 posts
235 posts
19 Dec 2008 12:16am
Well powered, certainly! On modern boards this isn't that hard to do if you drive your weight down through the boom, practically lifting your feet off the board to get it planing. I do this after jumps that I don't land. Never tried on an 8 meter sail, though!

Wet Willy said...

Woo Hoo! From persistent rain and no wind despite a good forecast, to a HONKING afternoon (and possibly the next few days)!

Today for the first time I managed the daring feat of waterstarting with my feet in the straps, hooking in halfway up and thus going from zero to fully planing in about one second!

This means I was overpowered, right?

Damn that was fun!


Wet Willy
Wet Willy
TAS
2317 posts
TAS, 2317 posts
19 Dec 2008 3:10pm
puffin said...

... I do this after jumps that I don't land. Never tried on an 8 meter sail, though!




You'd be surprised what people can do to avoid getting a sore back...uphauling big sails is no fun at all!


Leman
Leman
VIC
672 posts
VIC, 672 posts
20 Dec 2008 3:49pm
Wet Willy said...

The thing that I've been finding tricky is flipping the sail in the water...sometimes as you flip it, the wind just slams it down hard, mast first. Other times the sail flips well but is pushed down into the water anyway. And sometimes it flips and stays up; what's the secret to getting this right?



Know what ya mean Wetwilly. Ever since I took the sport back up I find the sails drive underwater whenever I flip them from the clew. I will swear my old wave sails from 13 years ago flipped super easy on top of the water. Granted, I use 2 cammed sails, 8.5 and 6.5. Perhaps that's the reason.

One thing that I've started doing is to fly the sails no matter which way it is facing (even if the wrong direction) then either waterstart and gybe or let it flip from the flying positon. The sail is then on top of the water and in the correct position. Flipping from the clew seems the easy way but not if it sinks your sail and sometimes the board. This works for me, but perhaps someone knows a better way for large cammed sails.

On another note Wet Willy, I bought an old formula board to replace my broke 131 carve for low wind days and I love it. I recall you saying you have a 8.5 Ezzy Freeride. Would you say it has almost as much kick as the Infinity? I need to replace my current one which is falling apart and if the freeride has only slightly less kick without all the hassles i've had with cams, I'll be sold.

Oh yeah, I sometimes just put my back foot in the footstrap during a waterstart when it's super overpowered to help avoid a catapult. Only a few times have I had both feet in after landing a jump badly but feet still and and sail still flying.

dieseagull
dieseagull
NSW
241 posts
NSW, 241 posts
21 Dec 2008 3:11pm
Wet Willy said...

The thing that I've been finding tricky is flipping the sail in the water...sometimes as you flip it, the wind just slams it down hard, mast first. Other times the sail flips well but is pushed down into the water anyway. And sometimes it flips and stays up; what's the secret to getting this right?


I have trouble with this too in high wind. I find that it always dives into the water when the sail isnt far enough around to flip properly. Try to get the sail further round before you let go with your back hand to make it flip, and also make sure you have your front hand right at the front of the boom when it flips, that keeps it out of the water for me!
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