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Nice Grassy Point outing with John, Dick, Alan, Bob, Wolfrom (sp?) and myself. I rigged my new Ezzy Infinity 6.6 and headed out. I found the sail be be somewhat gutless on the low end. It could just be me, but others were out planing like usual and I was slogging. Could also have been the weeds. I have a weed fin, but it's not a radically swept back one, and some weeds still might be able to stick.
At first it was sort of light, then it got really windy, then light again and then ended on a "perfectly powered up" half hour. When it first picked up I was really having a tough time. The sail was okay handling, and definitely was easier to control in the gusts than my old 6.5, but the problem of the sail foot dragging and slapping waves reared it's ugly head again. I nearly went over the handlebars several times when I'd be screaming along and then have a wave hit the sail foot and slow be down. Err, it slowed down the sail, I still was screaming along. I never pitched, though.
After awhile, I went to shore, my arms beat from not trusting the harness enough. I downhauled and outhauled a bunch. Now the sail was flat, and I took a few more runs in too much wind and just when I was thinking about going to shore to rig the 5.4, the wind died. It was just under planeable and I was slogging back and forth for about 20 minutes hoping and waiting. Just when I was considering going to shore to put up the 7.8 or at least pull out the floatier Seatrend, it picked back up. Now the sail is all over the place, the CE moving here and there. I decided to go to shore and let out some outhaul. I had outhauled it past Ezzy specs, to try to depower it before. This worked great. The sail locked in and I enjoyed a nearly effortless half an hour of trusting my harness, pointed like a MF, pulling off a few jibes (and a great planing fast tack, shocked the sh!t out of me!), and having a good time. I was comfortable and it felt great. I packed it up about 10 minutes before lightning started sprinkling the area.
Once I was getting ready to waterstart when three sailors came planing in. So as to not interfere with their jibes, I waited and watched. One sailor went to shore, another went upwind before jibing but Dick Ward used me for a jibe mark and executed a wonderfully graceful jibe right out of the book. It was sweet. He was 50 feet away before I got in the harness.
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