|
I wasn't planning on sailing today, but I ended up going after getting caught up a bit with work. I intended to go to Bird Island, but the spring break traffic was clogging the JFK Causeway, which is only one-lane both ways right now due to construction. After I saw the line I veered off and headed to Grassy instead.
Chip, Jeff, Chip's nephew, John, Mike, Karl, Crab and a couple of people I've seen before but not met were there. Later Damian came, as did Dan. It was great sailing. I went with the 4.7 that I've only used once before, for a very short time, and on my Screamer, not the Carve.
The first couple of runs were miserable and I tired quickly as I fought to find the comfort zone. The sail was twitchy and not fun. I adjusted the harness lines, boom height, foot strap looseness, downhaul and outhaul. That all helped, but it felt much more comfortable after I moved the mast base all the way forward. My thoughts are that the older (1992) 4.7 Sailworks Quaddro has a center-of-effort further aft than modern sails. My 2002 Infinity 5.4 and 6.6, which I've used several times with this board, like to be near the back of the track. But the 4.7 was much happier further forward (all the way forward, in fact). And, I was happier, too.
However, the first 15 minutes wrestling with a 4.7 square meter gorilla made my arms burn. After, just normal sailing put them back into burn after only a few runs. Hopefully next time I'll rig and set it up right to start and last longer. I wrote down all the measurements, etc, after sailing and before derigging. I won't use that sail enough to remember them, probably.
I did manage about 2.5 hours of good flat water blasting. I wasn't able to drop it into 5th too well, but I was going plenty fast. I had a chance to try about 40 jibes and I pulled most of them off. It's SO MUCH BETTER to have tons of wind when jibing. You go in with your hair on fire and come out with a lot of wind to push. Much nicer than a barely powered jibe. I'll have to fight the urge to rig down when overpowered, it's so much more fun to sail overpowered or totally powered. Plus, pointing high into the wind, even on a small weed fin, is cake.
The jibes I missed were great, too. I had some great wipeouts, all during jibe attempts, no slams during reaches or pinches, though. On several wipeouts I bounced off the bottom of the shallow laguna. It didn't hurt, but I hope I don't wreck in some rocky spot. They seem to be few and far between at least.
Grassy does well on really powered days, when I can use my smaller fins. I think I'll try BIB or the Bay for the lighter days, when I need bigger fins.
|