Looking forward to great Christmas on the lake..
Its almost a year since I got started up here at Elanda point - a fantastic year!!
Update for the Holidays....
1. Wife in an updated Van (Got to keep Jane happy)
2. Kids rigs and windsurfers organised (thanks to seabrease buy and sell
)
3. 155ltre Starboard GO!!! (thanks to seabrease buy and sell 
)
4. A mess of sails and masts (again thanks to seabrease buy and sell)
5. A year in the Gym working on my fitness
- got a crook back on the leg press
6. Got a new bionic eye (catarach surgery) so I can see where I'm going!
7. Picked up my new toy this afternoon (again thanks to seabrease buy and sell )
I've had a great afternoon on the water (6.6 north sail) -exceeded my expectations for some gentle breese fun. OMG it got going - I got trashed!!!
I got a few issues...
1. Gravel rash on my knees and elbows (ouch!!) from the 80 grit sandpaper deck - can you get elbow and knee pads?
2. When it got going (remember I'm a beginner) it tipped up onto the side - is this because its narrow and has a centre board? I found I could controll the lifting by putting my weight further out from the centre of the board.
3. Think I'll have to make up a nose pad for the board as I've catapulted myself forward into the nose a few times already.
I'm delerious with the shear joy of it all - will keep you posted on how the holiday goes.
Goals for the next few weeks -
1. Get planing on a more consistant basis (get the GO going
)
2. If the wind gets up have a go at water starting
3. Get out on the water twice a day - morning and afternoon
4. Teach the kids to windsurf.
Happy Holidays
Cheers Jeff
Nice board Jeff, Its fun when they get up on their sides especially when on the plane. Been thrown off hard a few times in gusty winds with the old Wayler. I will be up there on the next WindWanderes day on the 13 Jan. Hopefully the wind will be good to try out the boards on Flat Water.
Have a great Christmas and New Years.
Hi Jeff
You did the right thing moving your feet out on to the edge when the board was roling too much. The centreboard is only required when you are going hard upwind. If you are sailng across the wind, you can have it fully retracted. And always retracted when going downwind.
If you are going upwind and it becomes too hard to hold in the fully down position, you can just tilt it back a little until you can stop it tilting too much. A bit of tilt is good. It helps the board bite into the water and makes it go upwind better.
Part of your railing problem could also be where the mast base is in relation to centre board setting- if you run the mast a fairly long way forward and as soon as you start getting some significant pressure in the sail start racking the centreboard as tony suggested- by having the mast fairly forward in the track it tends to calm this trait down quite a lot. I only sail longer boards and part of getting them going well is centreboard rack. Allows the sail to be racked back more which further allows you to move your weight further back (progressively) on the board and promotes better speed.
@all...Thanks for the replies...
@stanly Knee pads - I was thinking if i had a large stubby cooler it would cover my elbows and knees I have an old handmedown wetsuit - thinking of using the cut off arms and legs.
@jeffosail.....Betadine on the grazes
Railing - yep will get more active on managing the centre board - for me there's a lot going on and kicking up the centreboard often leads to circuit overflow- crash syndrome!!
Thinking of getting an ezy-uphaul to help out the tired back - any feedback on these?
@handyman re.. I only sail longer boards and part of getting them going well is centreboard rack- What is a centreboard rack? Do I understand - move the mast forward to tame flapping nose?
Cheers Jeff
Sweet board - wife and kids sorted - you da man!
I think handyman is talking about the angle forward and backward i.e. retracting the centreboard a little if overpowered. I'd call this "rake" rather than "rack". So raking the centreboard helps. As for mast position, the idea is that having the mast back in the track actually increases the leverage it exerts and makes the board rail more, so you can calm it down a bit by moving the mast forward. Which then also lets you rake the sail more.
Re knees - I wear a Ronstan skiff suit which has kevlar patches on the knees (just happened to have one from my skiff days). When it's too hot for that, I wear a stinger suit. But if you're into exposing your flesh to the elements I can't help you ;)
Re ezy uphaul - absolutely essential piece of kit, I have one on every boom except the really tiny ones. There are so many ways to get tired that are more fun than uphauling, so I save my energy for them.
Nice to read your post and good to see you are
getting the rest of the family involved.
Hopefully see you at the lake soon.
Darryl & Theresa
Hi Jeff, are you up at the lake for chrissy? as I am heading there on the 26th for seven days and planing to get kids and wife out as well they are keen.Might see you there.
Hi ... Update. Few more hours on the water today. Mostly on the Kona (for the present conditions I'm loving this board).
Swapped over to the 155l Go for a while bit not enough wind to get anything happening :(
Spent remainder of afternoon on the kona, it is plenty challenging in these moderate winds with heaps of fun factor - loving the long board.
Couldn't find any skate guards for the knees and elbows - presently using tube elalastic compression bandage from the chemist. Working well to protect the raw points on my elbows and knees.
Got the kids out this morning - I've got to be patient and work with their attention span!!
I'm now kicking back watching Youtube windsurfing how to videos enjoying a scotch while Jane and the kids are at the movies;)
Cheers Jeff
@nowork. We are up here at Elanda until early January. I have to go back to work for 5 nights 26-31st. So we may meet up New Years I may come back up as a day trip during my work break - depends on how work goes.
Hey Jeff, glad to hear you are enjoying the board. I found that you really only need the centreboard if you are hard on the breeze. If you are at the point of planing while pointing upwind, you will rail up a bit. Plant your weight on the rail to hold it down and if you need to you can kick the centreboard back a bit to reduce the heel.
I tended to only use the centreboard to get a long way upwind, then kick it back and bear off on a series of planing broad reaches. You can really notice the reduction in drag with the board up
Anyway, good luck and hope to see you on the lake in the next couple of days.
Troy / Trojan
Quiet day on the lake today. Time for an update
I had some great times on the Kona over the Xmas Nye period.
Best day was 27/12. It was a huge day, I had to go back to work for a few night shifts however the predicted winds suggested it was time to sacrifice a little sleep to get some TOW :)
I had organized to meet up with Jeffosail - so with a little snooze onboard I travelled back up to the campsite and 15k plus winds. I felt so excited with the anticipation of a great time on the water - I must be addicted!!!
As predicted the wind was howling and I had my usual 'butter flies' / anxiety over the anticipation of getting trashed!
I went out on the Kona first - wahoo - planing!!! OMG felt out of control most of the time but having the time of my life. I just can't believe how much fun I'm having with this sport. I feel getting onto the Kona has been the best thing.
I met up with Jeffosail in the water and had a great chat about rigging and stuff. I got to play with my North ratchet extension (thanks to Gumtree and Tristan) and added more downhaul. Jeffosail headed back to Boreen to downsize his gear. I watched him do a waterstart - looks so easy and natural - I uphauled :(
In the strong winds I had issues with the nose of the board lifting up and the board getting unstable - I moved the mast foot fully forward and this settled down. Probably need to play with this some more - it's hard when you don't know what you don't know!
I tried getting into the front foot straps but big fail. All I managed to do was either bury the rail or u-turn the board up into wind, obviously I've got some finesse issues to deal with?
I also got out control by slowly losing my ability to keep the sail positioned. I had this experience of slowly losing the ability to keep the sail sheeted in - the board would turn down wind, I'd loose my ability to sheet in and the board would accelerate at warp factor 5 down wind. After crashing a few times when this started to happen I'd jump off before the inevitable happened
With the Kona planning I had another go at getting the shortboard planning. Swapped the 6.5 over to the 150l Go. I couldn't get controll of it - yep it certainly got up on the step and in a big fashion - whoosh , crash!!!
I found everything was hyper twitchy? I never really had controll of the sail an couldnt hold it stable on the GO without upsetting my stance and controll of the board. Just wondering in hindsight if I was overpowered - that's if I understand what overpowered means :). I catapulted a few times - massive bruise on my thigh where I continually landed on the boom. The numer of times I did this you'd think I was practicing it as freestyle move.
After 2 hours on the water I had a long break - coffee an Xmas cake - yum.
The wind settled a little and I went back out on the Kona. It was just magic - I had episodes of feeling in controll in the harness and planning from one run to the next. A very happy chappy :)
The money shot- digging my front heel into the water and having the spray shoot up over my head - it's the small joys!
A monumental afternoon on the water - drove back to brissy and dragged myself back to work for nightshift - hot pack and brufen in hand to restore the damage.
Cheers Jeff
Nothing like going back to work for a rest I once told my boss that after a holiday working on the yard & windsurfing he was not impressed ha ha.
@glynn . I haven't tried the blades yet - waiting till I crash a little less
@jmetcher. I dropped into Caloundra sailboards and extended my Xmas shopping a bit of retail therapy after having a blue with the misses! I picked up a couple of ezy up hauls and a chinook Rig Winch looking forward to a easier time with my back.
@evilC. Thanks for the 7.4 koyote. I had it out in gentle winds yesterday. Love seabreeze buy'n'sell
Winds are picking up - may get the kids out on the board again
Cheers jeff
Looking at the forecast, the 7.4 should be perfect for Friday and Saturday. Enjoy
I'm having a demoralizing morning!!!
The wind is howling - felt excited to get onto the water.
Tried to get going with the Kona and 7.5 - couldn't get past getting up on the board. I would beach start with the board pointed up into wind, then as I turned to get going I'd loose control and crash.
I changed over to a 4.7 but still out of controll - some days a just growth days! The gusts are just too much for me.
I'm having a coffee to regroup and going to try my training board with the 4.7 - see how I go?
Upside.... I met @lungs (Derek) on the beach and we talked about what I could do and some rigging advise.
Upside2..... Murray from Bundaberg is in the van next to me. He's been learning about a year I've been helping out. He has learnt to beach start and is now into a harness. His wife lenelle is also learning and progressing well
Upside 3. Murray went out with the 3.5 on his 170l funster and had a great time in the conditions. I was both proud and envious
Cheers Jeff
Getting the wife to understand the sport,
Your on your own there, 16years and I have has no joy on the subject.
