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First day sailing in 2002. It had been cold for awhile, then warmed up just as my work heated up, too. Today I got a little sailing in, though. I got to Bird about 3:30, late for this time of year. About the time I arrived it was dying and everyone was coming in. I rigged my big 7.8 and put it on my Allstar 70 and sailed by myself for awhile. My first couple of reaches were hairy. The sail was back then front handed and I was having some near death launches. So I came in and put about 3 inches of downhaul on it. That really depowered it. When I got planing now, the sail was comfortable and in control. Balance was great and sailing was effortless. It was much less powerful, though. Next time I need a happy medium between the two downhaul points. Amazing what 8 centimeters of downhaul will do.
I bought a used fin from Worldwinds Don, too. It's a 14.5" weed for my Screamer. That's about as big as that box will take and I'll have to make a few modifications to get it into the box, but it will help me plane sooner when I'm on the Screamer. I opted to wait and not buy a new board yet. I'll wait until summer or fall, depending on how things look then. The one thing that makes me want a new board is I can't get my new 6.6 back far enough on my old Screamer. The mast track is 60.5 inches from the tail on the Screamer, while a Starboard Carve 111 is 51 inches and a Seatrend ATV 278 is 50 inches. I'm going to need to go that route soon, because the 6.6 needs to go farther back, and the 5.4 will need to go even further. But, with the 14.5 inch Finworks Weed, I should be good to go for a few months in marginal 6.6 wind on the Screamer. Good news.
I'm starting to get the hang of jibing the Allstar. Much to my surprise, it's an easy board to jibe, once you figure out how. You have to really leap leeward and get on the rail, stomp hard and lean way out. It's more to do than jibing the Screamer, but it can really come around. The board has always been super fast when powered on flat water, and to have it jibe well is a nice bonus. I had a couple of jibes that felt really good, but the sail flip part still needs work.
Met Trucker Bob today, too. John got a nasty gouge on his arm, he thinks from his harness line. It looked like a burn or cut from a hot knife. He said it wasn't as bad as it looked, but it looked painful. Peter from San Antonio, Murph and Worldwinds John were there, too.
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