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It was windy when I arrived at BIB -- many were on 5.0's and less, so I decided to go 5.4 and see how it felt. I put it on my familiar Carve 111 and 12.5" True Ames weed first. It took about 200 yards to get a big enough puff to get going, but another 200 yards later I was totally wound and another two miles or so and I was closing in on the Third Bird Island. It sometimes takes a couple of tacks to get up there, but today it was windy enough to point pretty high so I got there fast. I decided against going past Third Bird Island because I was overpowered on my bigger board.
About 40 minutes later I headed in to take a quick break and to go to the smaller board. I didn't really need a break, but the board was plenty big and I thought it a good time to get familiar with the smaller F2 wave that I recently purchased used.
After sanding down a few nicks from a Rainbow Weed Speed I bought from another guy recently, I headed out on the F2. Again, couldn't get on a plane for awhile, again when I got there, I was wound and could point pretty well. Again, I didn't chance Third Bird, this time out of unfamiliarity with the board. I had some trouble keeping it on a plane, and also when screaming along, I had trouble keeping it on the water. It's a different board, for sure, and I always struggle when on gear I'm unfamiliar with.
I tried some new stuff and fiddle with gear. I had a couple of long swims back to my gear after wipeouts, which is rare. I could touch bottom, but the gear was blowing away faster than I could walk, so I had to swim.
About 10 minutes after I thought to myself "Now I'm starting to get comfortable on this board" I did a nice jibe, hooked in and thought "hey, this boom is really floppy". My first thought was "is the inhaul loose?" followed shortly by "unhook, UNHOOK, ***UNHOOK***" I unhooked and let go just as the boom snapped at the head. Had I been hooked in, I would have really bent that sucker, and probably would have had a couple of bleeding gashes somewhere. Since I got out, I just had to swim for a minute to reach the gear.
So, this was my first breakdown -- ever. I have NEVER broken anything on the water up until today. I couldn't have been more fortunate, though: I'm only about two miles from the launch, only about 500 yards from shore, in chest deep water and sailors within a reasonable distance (I was mostly sailing by myself, but there are always sailors around). When I was rigging a fix, two fishing boats came by and if I were in danger, I could have flagged them down pretty easily. So, I was in good shape. To top it off, the boom snapped on the port side and to return to the launch was an off-the-wind starboard reach.
I lashed the boom to the mast where it broke (right at the head) using line I keep on my harness. I first used my boom bra to cover the broken area to prevent damage to the sail or mast. It held great, I managed to make it back in a few minutes -- maybe 10 or 15, I guess, as I was mostly slogging, even though it was a good enough system to probably plane back. I didn't want to risk further failure which would have required breaking down the mast & base, rolling the sail and paddling in.
Now I need a new boom, though. ;-( And it was frustrating because I was just getting to the "fun" part. I had hit some jibes on the F2, and felt how turny and slashy it is. I was just S turning back and forth on a few reaches, just like other guys I've seen. That's surprisingly fun, though it looks more like you are a total kook and out of control.
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