Self rescue from fin snap

Snapped a fin clean off about three kms from launch site yesterday. Made it back in one piece with all my gear so I thought I would share what I learnt. First up, I was lucky that I could stand where it happened. It was a limestone pillar that did the damage, water was waist to chest high.

I took off my harness and put the bar through the back straps. Top of the harness pointing towards the nose of the board. Tied leg straps through the foot straps as well and tightened as best I could. I tried to sail in this which was doable but very tiring. 20kt gusts with a 7.5m, no harness and a draggy board. I made about 800m like this, just hanging off the boom. Would have taken a lot from me to complete the trip like this. Was having doubts...

After a rest I tried a water start and realised that flying the sail and body dragging was a fair less strenuous option. I located the clew outside the leeward back strap, used a good wide grip and let me legs dangle behind. I found that I could even point reasonably well if I wanted to by changing to an underhand front grip, dipping my front shoulder and turning my body sideways (i.e. my left hip pointing down, right hip up). In this way I could use my body as a rudder and get some good lateral resistance. Lucky for me it was a broad reach course to get me home so I didn't need to do this but nice to know it can be done even if a little more tiring than a straight body drag.

For some reason, the odd fish was coming up and having a suck on my legs. This was a bit disturbing the first couple of times but i got used to it.

Thanks to Anita for keeping a good eye on me and waiting until I was safe and sound before sailing herself. This is pretty typical of the windsurfing community, great to know that your mates will look out for you.

The ruler line is just over 3kms.

What it looks like.

Thanks for the story Paddymac, glad it ended ok.

I may be a little cautious, but I basically won't sail anywhere I can't swim (or walk) home from. So 500 odd meter ocean runs, but any distance in the shallow stuff. I also take a short length of downhaul rope of in my vest, if only to tow any mates to shore if needed. Dunno, just hate the idea of being stuck in the middle on knowhere- especially the shark riddled spot I mostly sail.

I'm quite obsessed with security...

I've attached a spare harness line (the type you don't have to remove the end of the boom to fit) to the back of my harness
Got a big length of uphaul cord + a cyalume (glow in the dark tube thingy)
My fins are fitted with BTR screws so I can change them with the allen key for battens which is in the sleeve pocket, since my last fin breakage I insert a crappy old select fin in the mast sleeve.(easy when you have a cammed sail)

Hasn't saved me yet but has saved a couple of my mates (still needed a screwdriver as their fins were fitted with standard screws)

And I take my waterproof mobile phone with me

+3.

Select to expand quote

Squid Lips said..

Sailhack said..

Mark _australia said..

Only had the pleasure once thankfully.
Fair enough on wave gear so softer rails are less trippy, but I gave up on all that stuff and just sailed. Board was almost sideways, planing, and on a very broad reach. Sacrificed a few hundred meters for the benefit of being quick.

Still no fun!!!

This is also what I've done - ended up with a short walk, but once planing (which is very hard to do without sliding all over the place) I dug the rail in and it pointed ok. I was lucky in that my footstraps were set on the outermost setting and I was able to dig deep on the rail (creating a directional edge). As soon as the rail didn't have enough pressure to dig in, it just slid out!

Fun in the shallows though!

Me too. I was surprised how well it sailed with no fin, could even go upwind a bit. Would slide around a bit at first then get going well for 100m or so then get a bit too comfortable and put too much pressure sideways and slide out; waterstart then do it again. This was on a freemove board with the fin snapped off clean with the box.

I had a fin break recently about 1500 m from shore in side-off conditions. Trying to plane downwind without a fin was not an option, I would have been at the reef in no time, and then past it and completely out of sight. Deep water, but the harness thing worked. Surprisingly, just having the harness in a footstrap and dragging behind the board was enough, even allowed me to point a bit. It was indeed tiring, though.

An extra fin would not have helped me. Getting the remaining piece out of the fin box required a screw driver and a hammer - just tapping the screwdriver with my fist after loosening the screw did not work. I doubt that I would have gotten the fin remainder out in deep water even if I had had a screw driver and a hammer. It was a powerbox fin, maybe a tuttle would have been different. Full report at boardsurfr.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-harness-fin.html