Hey Ron,
Thanks again for an
awesome weekend! Had a blast and hope to see you next year, shooting to
practice up the formula next time. Thanks for showing us the scene, the
clinic, beers, fun sailing, and all around awesome time!
Here's my race story:
Coming from Saint Petersburg and carpooling with
Zack Marks, we barely could fit all of our gear in the pick-up truck.
This made for not much choice on sail size or gear option; however, upon
arrival I realized that was the least of my worries looking at a fairly
intimidating shore break. As a Gulf Coast boarder where wave conditions
are typically more than friendly, the shore break for Lauderdale on Sunday was
complete opposite from the regular Saint Pete light chop I’m mostly used
to. Regardless, the Saint Pete crew sailed Friday and Saturday before the
race to get oriented in more uncomfortable conditions.
It was a great weekend and one of the most enjoyable but challenging races I've done windsurfing. Upon hitting the water for Sunday racing my interpretation of the conditions were completely off. After escaping the shore break and almost snapping my second mast of the weekend, the rig was completely off; boom too high, under-powered with too much downhaul, and mast base position too far back. The ocean waves psyched me out and was rigged for far more extreme conditions than there were. So after trying to make the horrible rigging job work in the pre-start and falling all over the place, I finally took the time to adjust the rig and get off the line. By the time I up-hauled the sail and looked forward the fleet was already planing off the start. I tacked back around to clear the line and played the catch up game. With puffy conditions, tricky sailing, and too quick transitions, I took a few dives before tuning in and balancing the board. With a jammed centerboard and no ability to point I sailed probably twice as much distance than I needed to upwind. Trying to force the board upwind with not much traction in the water turned into a wrestling match with poor balance on the sail. Needless to say, I fell… quite a few times; on one fun over the handle bar launch in a heavy puff I even put my head right through the sail. I didn’t let the cranium size hole in the sail stop me and rounded the windward mark pretty far behind majority of the fleet. Sailing off the breeze proved to be more successful and didn’t drop the sail really from that point on. As the wind died with a building front offshore, the Kona fleet was in-between centerboard planning majority of the 2nd leg. After rounding the 2nd mark into the third leg, which was all downwind, the building front finally hit. I had a blast on the way to finish, full planing off the fin on a broad reach angle. The heavy breeze gave me a great chance to catch up and had the opportunity to finish closer with the Kona fleet. With a light rain, dark clouds, and gusts that seemed up to 18, I planed into the finish eyeing the lay-line through my head sized hole. This race was challenge but some of the most fun I’ve had on the water. Great time, great fleet, and awesome group! I’ll be there next year with more gear and more practice!
Will Felder