Dec 31

2853km

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon Slalom 38, Wind: 15G18

Slightly lighter winds than yesterday. Good exercise session with some more jibing practice. Little By Little...

Dec 30

2825km

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon Slalom 38. Wind: 16G19

Little By Little. PB's for the 7.5 in 2Sec, 5x10, and Alpha.

Good short session. Tide was high enough that I allowed Bitchin' Betty to pull me farther into the mangrove area than I would normally go on the 38 cm fin but made it in and out without hitting anything :)! Jibes (and alphas) are slowly improving, just need more TOTW with focus on technique. I'm noticing that after a run across the bay (usually NOT in cruising mode) followed by a 'go for it' at the end that I'm not usually mentally fully ready to concentrate on the lay-down jibe technique. Guess I need to spend some time focusing :)

Dec 28

2807km
Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake carbon slalom 38. Wind: 13G16 ENE

Little By Little. PB's for the 7.5 for 2Sec and 5x10 (on Bonaire or anywhere...)

Winds lighter than yesterday so rigged bigger but still managed to improve my lay-down jibing. The key, for me, is to force myself to aggressively lean forward, and to be quicker than I think I should in switching feet. Loosened the front foot straps just a tad to make it easier to get the front feet out when jibing (but still have control on the reaches).

Made more runs in what I'll now call the Bonaire Speed Run (BSR). I need to jibe sooner on these runs, before I get into the wind shadow, so I have a better chance on improving lay-down jibes and also Alphas.

Dec 27

2778km
Bonaire Lac Bay, Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC340. Wind: 17G21

Little-By-Little (LBL) is my operational mode. Another set of incremental PB's for the 6.5 in Bonaire in 2Sec and 5x10.

Good session this afternoon. Jibe timing is improving so % completion is also improving. Felt confident enough in the jibes and waterstarting to venture some runs more 'off wind' on the southerly runs. This reminded me a lot of the run-out area on the Hood River Sandbar with small but manageable chop and still decent wind before going into the wind shadow of the mangrove trees. The run-in to the area (about due West of the sandbar) has some pretty hairy chop to run over from behind but once past that area it is 'lock-in and go for it time. Kind of a combination of HR Waterfront Park and the HR Sandbar. Obviously this area will get significantly more use by me. If I can feel confident here, I stand a chance this Summer on the HR sandbar.

Dec 26

2757km
Bonaire Lac Bay, Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC340. Wind: 17G21 ENE (?) Wind gauge was all over the map today...

Got an earlier start today and sailed before the afternoon wind fade. Good sessions, getting timing a little better on the jibes but the wind direction again made it difficult to 'go for speed' and have room to jibe as well. So, of course, I would forego the latter. Rigged per yesterday and everything felt good. The one question I have, and I can't tell when I'm fully powered is what the leach at the top of the sail is doing. In conditions where I have had a chance to look, the leach is pretty floppy although there is some twisting off. Guess that isn't an issue as long as the sail feels good and I'm moving... Had to stop before the wind did as I was starting to make stupid mistakes, and the wind was slowly fading.

Today was a 6.5 PB for both 2Sec and 5x10 for Bonaire Lac Bay.

Roo commented:
Sail ugly I say, doesn't matter how it looks as long as it performs. Reminds me of a girl I went out with in my younger days! :)

Dec 25

2729km
Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 90, MFC KP-RC340. Wind: 14G20 ENE

Allowed my desire to try out the newly tuned iSonic 90 to over-ride what I knew would happen wind-wise. When I arrived at the bay the wind was 18-20 gusting higher. Oh Boy! Of course, by the time I was rigged it had backed off to conditions similar to yesterday. Undeterred, I still sailed the iSonic 90 on the 6.5 rather than re-rigging to the 7.5 and using the iSonic 107. Got in some decent runs but not consistently solidly powered like yesterday. Wind was a little weird compared to normal with a northerly component. Didn't initially want to sail to a northerly part of the bay that is typically difficult to get back to the car from so pointed hard and sailed over to the rental area. Finally gave in and sailed as the wind dictated :).

So how did the iSonic 90 fair? Very nicely in the gusts. Lively, controllable, and easier to carve than the iSonc 107 when jibing. I think when I get solid 18-20 knots the 6.5/90 combination will be a sweet ride where I can practice jibing on a setup that will translate nicely to the new Gorge Gear (Goya Bolt 95 and Retro 6.5 or 5.5). If I get enough jibing practice in these conditions, maybe I will be actually able to sail the Gorge this coming Summer (rather than sail, crash, swim, waterstart, sail, crash, swim, repeat...) :). Oh, and the Sailworks Retro 6.5 rigged to Roo Specs with boom in top outhaul hole handled nicely (and waterstarted easily).

To preemptively answer Roo's next question: is this a PB for the 6.5, the answer is a qualified YES. Qualified because I have had faster 6.5 2Sec numbers BUT they were all GORGE numbers with much higher wind speeds. This IS a PB for 2Sec for Bonaire on either iSonic 90 or iSonic 107:).

Roo commented:

So the tuning seems to be working. Nice to get a Christmas session in.

I commented:
Yes, I would say it is definitely helping. I think the tuning is helping in large part because it is allowing me to rig bigger and still feel stable and comfortable. A couple of 30+ runs in some chop (Floras Lake) last summer also may have adjusted my 'fear factor' calibration and I'm slightly more willing to 'go for it' now (a helmet with a face guard probably is helping also :), yes, I'm a wuss ). If the forecast for tomorrow holds true, I will be testing some of these hypotheses...

Christmas: From the time that Claudia and I moved to Bonaire, Christmas has seemed very weird to us - something about ornaments on palm trees and 85F weather...

Windxtasy commented: 
Hi Barton

My couple of years in Minnesota taught me that the Christmas feeling is more about the weather that you are used to at Christmas time than anything else. Here Christmas is often 100 degrees F, Sunny and dry. Snow looked like the Christmas cards but didn't feel like Christmas at all. In July when the grass was brown, then it felt like it should be Christmas.

90 degrees F here yesterday, sunny and dry with a 20 knot seabreeze in the afternoon. Perfect!

Dec 24

2707km

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon Slalom 36, Wind: 15G20 knots

Finally, a decent session with TOTW, consistent wind for the entire session, and the correct guess regarding equipment.

The tuning from the previous session seemed to help. Moving the foot straps made the iSonic more lively but still controllable. The sail tuning per Roo and using the top clew hole provided a sail that was stable, had nice pull low on the sail yet was still manageable in the gusts. Numbers are not indicative of the fun I had today - first time in a long time that everything felt good with just enough 'on the edge' to keep the runs interesting. Even made some jibes and while not pretty 'lay downs' at least I'm starting to get the feel. I need to be more aggressive and switch stance earlier in the jibe. Unfortunately, the wind was lighter in the flat water of the mangrove area so off wind speeds suffered as well as power in the sail for jibing. On the plus side, the runs to the north seemed consistently faster (per Bitchin' Betty) than I remember by 2-3 knots (in the 21-24 knot range - will have to check GPSResults) and the tide was high enough that I could sail over the sand bar which made for nice runs back to the car.

Looks like the weather is finally changing back to more 'typical Bonaire" meaning 15-20+ knot winds and clear (rather than rainy) skies. Bring it on!!

Roo commented:

That's more like it Barton! Great to hear the winds coming back, white Christmas up here in the Gorge. Itching to get back on the water so will have to live vicariously through your exploits until then. Hope you and your wife have a hot and sunny Christmas.

I commented:

Thanks Roo! I'm looking forward to having some positive sessions to document. Making some jibes didn't hurt either :) . I was beginning to get a little grumpy with the constant rain and inconsistent wind. An hour round-trip drive just to watch rain squalls blow through and shut off the wind starts getting kind of old after a month or so...

Merry Christmas to you, Roberta and Julian. White is nice, for a very limited time :).

I commented:
Roo, I had an amusing (for me) interaction with a fellow windsurfer today while rigging the Retro. He came over to my rigging spot to mention that he too had a Retro 7.5. I made some comment about doing some tuning on the rigging and he said he would be glad to help me :). I suggested I thought I knew what I wanted to do and proceeded to downhaul the sail WAY PAST the Sailworks 'gear cog'. He was appropriately shocked and said I had just taken away 25% of the power. I told him your observation that Bruce Peterson and Dale Cook were big guys and therefore could handle/liked power higher in the sail. Downhauling lowered the power point for a person my size and made the sail more controllable. He kind of wandered off at that point. I had some personal smug satisfaction of later blasting past him on one of the runs to the north (he was on a 6.0). He sailed back to the rental area.

Roo commented:
Amazing how many experts you bump into on the beach. I'm sure he learned a lot after you passed him! Is that a new PB on the 7.5?

I commented:
Roo, yes, new PB's for the 7.5 in 2Sec, 5x10, as well as strongest winds. Hmmm, suppose there is a message buried here in the data? :) 

Roo commented:
Message is never listen to experts on the beach....

I commented:
Roo, my message is to sort the real experts from the wanabees. You have proven to be the real deal.

Roo commented:

Thanks Barton, I just think of myself as a lazy old beachbum that wanabee a speedsailor!

Dec 21

2677km

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon Slalom 36. Wind 12-14

Well, that was pretty much a waste with an hour of driving and an afternoon of sitting. What wind there was died just after I finished rigging. Made two runs and stopped, hoping it would pick up later. It wasn't a completely wasted afternoon - had a nice chat with Adam, his wife Lynn, and three year old daughter AJ.

Rigging notes: foot straps on iSonic 107 are all the way back for front straps, all the way forward for back straps. This put the back of the back straps at the front of the leading edge of the fin. Per Roo's Rigging Guidelines, using the elbow bone at the middle of the back strap, this located the front straps all the way back. Mast base centered in track put the middle of the harness lines exactly in line with a 90 degree line between the front and back foot straps. The Maui Sails carbon boom was located on the upper clew hole which required a 204 cm length. Mast base set at 36 cm extension.

Spent some time and set up the iSonic 90 foot straps and mast base identically to the iSonic 107.

While two under-powered runs provided little data, the rig setup felt comfortable. If I was in better condition, I might have been able to sail more with a lot of pumping, but because I'm not, I didn't.

Dec 13 - rigging tips, sail clearing tip

2672km

Bonaire Lac Bay, Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon Slalom 38, Wind 11-15 knots

The wind and the forecast need to communicate better...

Got some more execise plus a couple of decent runs. Practiced pumping.

Roo, per your comment yesterday, I'm trying :) !

Rigging notes: decided that yesterday's settings needed tweaking. Added 2 cm to downhaul (36 cm base), and with the extra downhaul needed 2 more cm to outhaul (202 cm). This moved the floppy part of the sail an additional 4 cm or so towards the mast from the 'gear cog' marking on the sail. The floppy part is about 18 cm from the cog now. This also loosened up the leach of the sail above the first batten above the boom to better meet the RRG directives, as well as allowing the battens to rotate better around the mast. Boom slightly lower than centered between 2nd and 3rd marks on sail.

Spent some time on the beach talking with Taty Frans and Casper Bouman (PWA sailor NED52) comparing the Gaastra Vapor 7.9 with the Neil Pryde EVO8 7.9. The consensus was that the Gaastra was more rigid and had a deeper pocket while the NP was more neutral and forgiving. The NP definitely had a much bigger luff pocket at boom height (maybe 10 cm) compared to the Gaastra. I then mentioned to Taty how I was rigging the Retros and he suggested that if I wanted more power in light winds I should use the upper clew hole. Lower clew hole for strong winds for control, upper clew hole for lighter winds and more power. Will give that a shot next time I'm on the water, which looks like Saturday or Sunday given the present wind forecast.

I asked Casper about clearing the NP and he cautioned me about using the board as a lever - he used to do that but thought that might be putting too much pressure on the stringers in the board. He wasn't sure and definitely said he wasn't an expert, but shortly after he used the 'board' technique he broke his iSonic in half. Correlation or no connection, he doesn't know. He suggested that while it is more difficult, he will try to swim the sail around so the tip is pointing into the wind and then try to lift the mast at the tip. Hard to do but if the sail does clear, it is sometimes easier to get it to rotate to the correct orientation for the desired direction of waterstarting.

(FYI for anyone that might actually read my posts and be wondering why 'all the documentation'? I archive all this information (plus comments) in my personal blog where I find it much easier to locate the tips. The blog is also creating a 'memory log' for me to enjoy when my 'legend' (age) status starts becoming more of a liability.)

Roo commented:
Sign them up for the team Barton, I know Taty uses his GPS all the time. Would be great to see his speeds and read his insights into each session. Go on get him on board!

I commented:
I'll see if Taty is willing to participate. I have only seen him wear a GPS a couple of times. This is the first time on Bonaire for Casper, not sure how long he will be here. 

I've included a photo from Taty's FB pictures along with his comments about the picture to provide some calibration for his Bonaire speeds  (in km/hour) which is 35.28 knots. 

Taty writes:
Improvement!
Testing training and constantly pushing to get the most from my gears, today I got a bit faster but what i am feeling better about is how quicker I accelerate

Roo commented:

We can make him faster, we have the technology, we have the money, we have the...........

I commented:

:)

It would be interesting to see his tracks and where he got his max speed. The times I have watched him practice he is typically BAFing, usually racing against other local slalom sailors. If this is in fact true, it would be interesting to see what he would do specifically running 120 degrees or so off wind shooting for a 2 sec max speed. Wind was funky today so I didn't go to the bay. Next time I have a chance to chat with him, I'll ask him if he happened to download and save the log file for that particular day. If I can acquire it, I'll post it to this thread.

Dec 12

2655km

Bonaire Lac Bay. Sailworks Retro 7.5, iSonic 107, Drake Carbon Slalom 38, Wind: 12 knots

Was going to be a short session anyway but having the wind die as I finished rigging pretty much finalized it. Got a couple of short runs but viewed this session mostly as a much needed exercise session.

Rigging notes: per RRG (Roo's Rigging Guidelines), mast base extension of 34 cm, boom at 200 cm (harness lines in identical location to NP EVO6 7.0).

Roo commented:
You have learnt well young speed padawan...the force is strong with you (-:  You'll have your sailing fitness back in no time. Start chasing Taty around and give him a scare!

Dec 11

2649km

Bonaire Lac Bay. NP EVO6 7.0, iSonic 107, MFC KP-RC-360. Wind 15G17E

Stamina is slowly improving. Muscles still giving out before I'm mentally ready to stop though. Got in some more jibing and waterstart practice sessions with a race sail. Slowly regaining confidence that I can self-rescue. 

When I arrived at the launch area, there were a bunch of guys there, including Taty Frans. Spent a few minutes chatting with him and was surprised to learn that with everything else he was doing yesterday, he knew roughly where I was sailing and that I got to spend a few minutes in the rental area getting pounded by a torential downpour. I can barely remember where I sailed the day after...

Spent time in the 'rental area' and then made a run back to the car for water and snacks. Was actually a little shocked at how much nicer (organized swells/chop) the water was after I exited the area with all the other windsurfers. Guess if I can get used to speed runs in the 'rental area' the open water will be a 'piece of cake'.

Dec 10

2631km

Bonaire Lac Bay, Sailworks Retro 6.5, iSonic 107, MFC KP-RC-360, Wind 14 G18 E

Short session in between rain squalls. Decided to use the Retro due to the constantly changing conditions. Got in some practice jibes and water-starts.

Rigging note: 460 Sailworks Joystick mast, mast-base set at 10 cm, Chinook boom at 186, harness line closest to boom at 4 marks from boom. Down-hauled per Roo's rigging tips at Hood River, got the sail to look close to how it was rigged in Oregon (using the previously mentioned settings with sail fully down-hauled).

When I did have wind, it felt good, nice and stable.

Dec 6

Bonaire Lac Bay. NP Evo6 7.0, iSonic 107, MFC KP-RC-360, Harness setting: 2.5 tabs to boom-side harness line. Wind: 12G18 knots

Another hour+ execise session slowly getting back in shape. Couple of good runs. Spent time practicing Roo's technique for clearing race sails.

Think I'll spend more time in the 'rental' area as I need more work clearing the sail, waterstarting the iSonic/NP sails and jibing. All of these practice topics are much easier in the shallower water. Should have a couple more weeks before the rental area becomes too crowded.

Dec 5

Bonaire Lac Bay. NP EVO5 7.8, iSonic 107, Drake Slalom carbon 38, Wind: 12G15 knts

Another barely-an-hour session. Wind was light but picked up enough at the end of the session (15 knt gust) to give me a nice downwind run back to the car. Sun was getting low on the horizon so time to quit before I had to walk/swim the gear back. At the beginning of the session, I had to slog to get upwind to the shallow rental area - messed around there enough to get some slightly sore muscles.

The 7-day forecast is for gradually improving winds and then a nice bump to over 20 knots for the weekend. Hopefully will have my water-wings tuned by then.

Dec 2

Bonaire Lac Bay, NP Evo6 7.0, Isonic 107, MFC KP-360. Wind:16 G 19 E

Back on the water after a 3.5 month hiatus. Was a short session but was all this old body could handle since I was lazy during the break and didn't keep myself in shape. My muscles are already telling me that I will be paying for being a slacker for the next few days.

Tweaked the footstraps and mastbase locations per Roo's tuning guidance. Having been off the water here in Bonaire for so long I couldn't tell if it was just my lack of sailing that made the ride 'twitchier' of if the tuning helped the speed and the adrenaline simultaneously.

After learning last summer about Roo's tip for clearing/waterstarting race sails after the luff fills with water, I decided to not mess around with the Retro sails and to start with the Pryde race sails. Fortunately, I didn't have to utilize Roo's tip today :) .

Roo commented:

Barton I wondered when you were going to surface again? Glad you're back on the water rather than under it. Your endurance will come back soon enough, 20 min sessions at a time to maximize your performance. Don't forget to drive it off the wind, none of this BAF stuff!

My Response:

Hi Roo. I've been on Bonaire since Nov 11 and yesterday was the first 'sailable' wind for me. Most days the gusts were less than 10 knots... It has been very rainy and calm here, not what I remember to be a typical November. On the plus side, it appears we may be starting back into a more normal wind pattern.

I understand about driving it off the wind but yesterday was really muddy on the mangrove side - couldn't see the bottom so wasn't ready to risk a speed run and end it with a catapult launch. I'll save that for a future day :) . 10 minute sessions were about all this old body could handle yesterday.

Oh, Claudia and I did log 63 dives each in Indonesia, and that was with her being sick the last two weeks of the five week trip...