Rocket Ship of the Day

Heard the wind was up, and decided a sail would be good for the soul, despite the fact that I really wasn't feeling or breathing that great. A bout of 9/11 hyperreactive airways and chest tightness that seems to come on when I mow the grass. Claritin or no claritin. Neck was also a mess, causing a bicep spasm, and some shoulder back pain, when I move my arm up close to my body, but not so bad that I couldn't sail. save the advil for tomorrow, if necessary.

Maybe the pull of the boom will be like traction -- sometimes it works that way. And maybe a good dose of sea air would clear out the lungs? A good dose of sea air sounds perfect to me anyway, right now. This North Shore air is getting heavy. Sounds like a plan. I took a puff of the asthma inhaler and crossed my fingers.
Leonardo, Dog of Sand, Wind and Fetch
The bikes stayed home, despite the perfect cool riding temps. Golf clubs came along for the ride; for the opportunity for entanglement (as multi-sports equipment has a tendency to do when in the presence of other sports paraphernalia) and as total no-wind insurance. I could practice the sand wedge if all else failed, or bail to a range if my herniated neck would allow.

Not much chance of that today, though, I really wanted to ride the like-"new" Randy French course board Lenny had given me a month or so ago, and today looked like the perfect breeze for it. The old Gaastra Manic 6.1 usually gets going in the lightest breeze, given some extra floatation under it, and right here we have, extra bouyancy, and rails designed to plane in a gnat fart.

So, time to roll out the 6.1 for the first time in a long time ... "Uh oh" what have we here? No sail mast tip retainer, top-cap pin or whatever it's called, and to make it worse, a worn-through busted top-cap strip.

No worries there's still one of two straps left on one side, and it looks sturdy enough to hold. But will it have balanced torque on the top cap up there, or will it pull the thing out to one side? We'll see I guess.

[Good thing I'm not at the ocean, as the risk of equipment failure would be too great. The day would be shot]

So here's the NINETWO-W. This was my rocket ship for today. It's a Randy French (280 cm 138 Liter version).

Time to thank Lenny Da Squid who passed this ride my way, The Squid; Runner, windsurfer, vintage Chevy Suburban restorer, and, ... generous board donor.

and thanks too, to Drysuit2 (see blog list on the right) for passing or selling (he could't remember) it to Lenny.

Drysuit2: All-seas, all-weather sailor, board nose smasher, fin-box buster and epoxy and fiberglass repair artist. Generous board donor.

The Randy French Ninetwo-W came with a rep for being skittery and difficult to control. Lenny rode it once or twice and pronounced it more board than he needed, perhaps he could hold a picnic on it.

Frank said it was kinda heavy going on the legs and a pain in the calves, but a very quick planer.

Great day for seeing a bunch of the crew; Bellmore Phil, Mike Burns, Frank, Ira, Zev, Domer, Eileen, Joe Rocco, Arty and Marty and Leonardo.

I'm just about to launch when I notice I have no uphaul. I haven't had one on this boom in years, having only sailed it on a sinker or in waterstartable conditions. Well, this is on the light side, so I return to the van, and pry an uphaul off my high-wind boom, and strap it around the mast above the boom. As that's the only place, it seems available. Huh? Don't they put holes in these booms anymore for uphauls?

And off we go. Point upwind for a schlog to the windline, and ...ignition, off into the wide blue yonder.

Imagine my surprise, then to discover that the board doesn't jerk onto a plane like a raging bull stuck with a matador's sword, but levitates itself with a buttery whoosh -- you're just gone with the wind. Gone.

Point it down a swell and it's even quicker to fly. And that was the sensation ... flying. Maybe the light 6.1 sail helped keep the board out of the water, and the fully rear mast track position (as far as the chinook two-bolt base was willing to go in) worked great for me with that sail.

I pondered getting some air of some of the swell out there off a few choice ramps, would have been very easy to go up.

But not sure whether the board was designed to be airborne, given how light it is for its size. Landing might not be quite as easy either, or necessarily in one piece. Generally course racers are not built to be bump and jump boards. Maybe next time?

I told Frank I was a little concerned I might not be "man enough" for such a big fast board, and I would probably crap myself in the jibes, but he said, not to worry, it jibes very well.

Was he ever right. the thing was smooth in the jibes — I like — and any flub was pilot error.

So round and round we went. Wow, this was easy sailing, front hand drag, back hand drag. The board behaves pretty nicely, but, this is not exactly a powered up test, just a cruise.

After a lull the bay flattened off a bit, boat cross chop died down, and the wind picked up. Now suddenly we were motoring. Wow! what a beast. This thing really does light up! pick a swell, prepare to jibe, into the turn, step...trip...aaagh!!!

One of my clumsy feet tripped right over a foot strap and I was airborne. The jibe became a crash scene, and, since we're on water, no big deal. Not usually, as the landing is soft.

But something's not looking right with the sail. "Houston we have a problem." The sail is either broken at the top, or somewhere else. Not something water-fixable without half an hour of drifting. ...

Now what?

With this floatation, uphauling shouldn't be a problem, except the mangled sail is clew-first wrong side. The first attempt was predictably dunk-worthy, but it succeeded in properly positioning the clew for a more successful second attempt.

The schlog back was unremarkable. The sail had accordioned down the mast about a yard, but even in the building wind it wasn't unmanageable. In fact it spilled wind and I could hook in. I could almost plane, but it didn't seem worth the risk of having to uphaul the bagged out thing again, so I just schlogged it back, very grateful that I'd noticed the missing uphaul and took the time to attach one, "just in case." Because this right here, was just one of those cases.

(darn, forgot to practice sand wedge!)

Sweet ride despite the sail hi-jinks. Thanks guys.