June 29 - Floras Lake

3640km
Langlois, OR, USA - Floras Lake

Sailworks Retro 6.5, Sailworks Retro 7.5, Goya Bolt 115, MFC KPR-42. Wind: 15G22, 12G19

Personal Training Camp Day 2. Goal for today was to focus on learning laydown jibes. 

Success score for today was 'middlin' .  The attempted focus was there but the body resisted after yesterday's workout and then the wind took a long afternoon nap... Got a short, good session on the 6.5 shortly after lunch then had to wait until about 5PM and went out on the 7.5. After I was tired and started to derig the wind picked back up again. Oh well. 

Results: no speed attempts today. The jibe focus clearly showed that I'm NOT yet doing laydown jibes - more like 30 degrees off vertical . At least I know the areas to work on. Tomorrow's forecast looks like a rest day with no wind so hopefully I'll be recharged and ready to go on Saturday.

Alsosnoff commented:

Barton, l always love to follow your stories!!

I commented:

Thanks Al!

I decided a while ago that at some point I won't be physically able to sail any more so I should be documenting my struggles/successes as I go so I will have memories to relive - thus the extra verbiage. As a way to make finding the memories easier, I decided to use Google's free blog services where I could put everything in one place for easy browsing. I thus have copies of all the GPSTC posts plus some extra pictures at http://bartonwindsurfing.blogspot.com/.  

Back to the topic of laydown jibes, I rewatched a video I took Taty Frans doing laydowns on his iSonic and realized that with his big sail (8.6 I think) he was only putting the mast over at maybe 50 degrees. My issue is the mast/sail is heavy so I'm not sure how far over I can go and still get it back up. Weight isn't an issue with the smaller sails so maybe I can go farther with them... any tips or tricks will be gladly accepted  .

June 28 - Floras Lake

3626km
Langlois, OR, USA - Floras Lake

Sailworks Retro 7.5, Sailworks Retro 6.5, Goya Bolt 115, MFC KPR-42. Wind: 12G19, 14G23

Personal Training Camp Day 1. New Attitude -> minimize negative thought clutter. Renewed focus on maximizing OTW learning experiences. Today's goals: fine tune harness line placement for absolute minimum sailing effort to maximize TOW. Focus on timing of sail/footwork on laydown jibes. Sail with minimum body effort (sail with loose muscles, no need to sheet-in/try-to-go-for-it on each run) to maximize distance and TOW. 

Today was a success per my goals . Dialed in the harness lines better than they ever have been - no arm stress when sailing. Sailed with minimum body effort, especially the legs. Legs tried to cramp a couple of times but not nearly as badly as last week. While a distance of 28 km is not stellar, it is a long ways from the 5-10 km of last week. Jibing is coming along with a third best alpha time. Interesting to me is that the first and second alpha times were done on an old Hi-Tech carbon slalom board that is very easy to jibe. I feel like I'm getting the hang of jibing the 'new technology' race/freerace boards that seem to require the laydown jibe approach (at least for me).

Started on the 7.5 (gusting to about 20) which was close to my comfort limit. When the wind bumped up to gusting to 23 knots I switched to the 6.5 which worked very well. The Bolt 115 was a pleasure to sail as it dealt very nicely with the wind holes on the east side of the lake.

Nice to end the day feeling like I learned something and had increased my skill level - been a while...

Roo commented:
Great effort Barton, attitude is everything. Mine sucked today, when the wind readings were 9 to 42 I didn't bother heading to the beach, knew it would be too gusty to do any runs. More wind for the rest of the week so I will man up and do some distance as pennance!  

I commented:

Thanks Roo. It is true that attitude can color everything we do...

I saw the wind readings at the event site today - not surprised you didn't sail. That is not a 'sucked attitude', that is being smart .

My goal for tomorrow is more improvement on laydown jibes - I'm getting the timing down on starboard tack (the windy, flat,  west side of the lake)  but need to really commit to laying the sail over. Still late on port tack sail flip - chop is much worse. Once I'm nailing port tack, look out Waterfront Park .

I am almost always now using overhand grip for front hand once I'm 'locked in'. It is more comfortable for me and I think it is allowing me to get farther from the rig... I suspect this might change when I experience Gorge Chop again ...

June 23 - Floras Lake

3597km
Langlois, OR, US - Floras Lake

Sailworks Retro 6.5, Goya Bolt 115, KPR-42, Wind: 14G25

A much more mellow day. Launched about noon and the wind slowly faded until I derigged to head back to Corvallis at 2 PM.

The 29.4 2 second speed was significantly more pleasant today with the chop size about half of yesterday's. Guess I'm a flat-water speedsailor, not a Roo Gorge speedsailor .

Now that the muscle cramps are fading into history, the next phase is to get in good enough shape so I can make more than one run before needing to stop and rest . Little by Little...

June 22 - Floras Lake - Board/sail size

3587km
Langlois, OR, US - Floras Lake

Sailworks Retro 5.5, Goya Bolt 115, MFC KP-R 42, Naish Chopper L (4.8), Goya Bolt 95, MFC KP-RC 360, Wind: 15G28, 20G33 knots

Good news for the day - no debilitating leg cramps.

Launched about 12:30 pm with the 5.5/Bolt 115 into 15G28 knot winds. Setup worked well except I was very close to overpowered and at the edge of my comfort zone most of the time. I'm not used to doing beam reaches at 27 knots and the Goya had a tendency to want to become airborne in the gusts. And of course, I had one over-handlebars dismount on the ocean side as I changed my balance just slightly preparing to jibe and got hit by a gust. Stopped for a snack and the wind ramped up to 20G33 for the rest of the afternoon. Rigged the Chopper L (4.8) and plugged it into the Bolt 95. While this was a much better choice than yesterday, in retrospect, I probably should have rigged the Chopper M (4.3) as I was once again close to overpowered and at the edge of my control. Around 6:30 PM when I saw the wind dropping I took the opportunity to venture out again on the Chopper L/Bolt 95. This was better but now was dealing with the windshadow holes on the east side of the lake and then full power half way across. Got some practice... When the wind dropped a little more, switched to the 5.5/Bolt 115. I immediately appreciated the ability to get through the windshadows without drama on the Bolt 115. Made a couple of runs but was again fully/overpowered on the ocean side. By then I was tired of fighting with being overpowered and bagged it.

Observations:

Having done back/back sailing on a Chopper and a Retro, I much prefer the Retro for stability, obvious low power pocket and ease of handling. The Chopper had this annoying tendency to feel like it was about to be backwinded when getting up to speed, getting in the foot straps, and simultaneously getting hit by a gust.

I suspect the Bolt 115 will be my go-to board at Waterfront Park due to the ease of getting through wind shadows and it is still sailable when off a plane if the wind dies. I'm too old for all the drama (for me at least) of hula dancing a board back to shore. 

After a couple of 29.x 2 second runs, it is clear that my cautious/safety mentality will probably keep me from ever fully going for it. While the ride was thrilling bouncing over the backs of 6"-12" chop and should have been my focus, I was actually thinking "don't crash and disable yourself because who will take care of my slightly impaired wife". That is not the thought process of someone hanging it all out...

Sail/board size thoughts:

30+ knot gusts -> Chopper M (4.3)/ Bolt 95

25-30 knot gusts -> Chopper L (4.8)/Bolt 95

23-28 knot gusts -> Sailworks Retro 5.5/Bolt 115

20-25 knot gust -> Sailworks Retro 6.5/Bolt 115

Sub 20 knot gusts -> Sailworks Retro 7.5/Bolt 115

Roo commented:
It's all in your mind Barton. Time to let out the inner speedsailor!

I commented:
The inner speedsailor wants out, just having trouble finding a path through all the clutter 

Windxtasy commented:

I am frequently thinking "Its really going to hurt if I come off at this speed". I don't usually come off, and when I do the pain is usually temporary.

I am sure those who go for it without care for crashing go faster.

Roo Commented:

It's always in the back of your mind when you start pushing your limits. The key is learning how to fall, when you go deep downwind you tend to crash more gently than upwind/across the wind. Thankfully the old days of catching an edge at speed have gone with modern sails that twist off and don't load up the forward rail in chop. The bad old days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIJ1jZQcSSY

I commented:

ok, I watched the video. Now, where is the tutorial teaching me how to fall so I skip away unfazed? 

Windxtasy commented:

I have done most of those except the one where the board turns up wind

June 21 - Floras Lake

3587km
Langlois, OR, US - Floras Lake

Naish Chopper S (3.8), JP Freestyle Wave 77, Black Project 26.  Wind: 19G33 knots

Today was a combination of 'payback time' and learning experience. My legs decided today was a good day to repay me for yesterday and they cramped almost immediately when I hit the water. 

Learning experience had a couple of bullet points. First, my naive assumption that the water would be relatively flat for speed runs was WRONG, at least for what I was thinking qualifies as flat. I was surprised that it doesn't take much of a reach distance before the chop becomes 12" washboard stuff. But today, I didn't need to worry about that anyway. Second, I have hardly sailed the Naish Chopper sails in the past couple of years and the same applies to the JP Freestyle Wave 77. Given what other sailors were saying about what they were sailing on, I elected to rig the Chopper S (somewhere between a 3.7 and 4.2 in power - thanks Naish for your obtuse sizing - Edit: found the specs for the Choppers. S = 3.8 [no wonder I was underpowered]). This turned out to be too small and felt really funny - maybe I've been sailing race and freerace sails too long. Probably would have been OK on the Chopper M (4.3) cranked down with the downhaul Roo recommmended last year. As a result I practiced the hula across the lake with my legs cramping. I messed around in the shallow area practicing waterstarts and trying to work out the cramps. I got one 'sort of' run back to the launch area where I got a taste of how twitchy the FSW 77 is compared to the Bolt 115 (duh). I took a break, ate some bananas, etc and came back a couple hours later when the gusts were hitting 35 knots. Made one sort of run across while my leg muscles were trying to knock me off the board. Realized trying to sail back to the launch was risky if I dumped it part way across as I could end up a mile 'down lake' with my legs cramping. Elected to walk the board back along the perimeter of the lake (maybe the walk wiill help the legs for tomorrow...)

On the plus side, I met a really nice guy named Rolph that is interested in GPS sailing and is a significantly better sailor than I am. He was cranking today (and had a camore GPS which registered a run of 40 mph), even doing a few forward loops to mix it up . Will be talking with him more to get him signed up on the team.

June 20 - Floras Lake

3571km

Langlois, OR, US - Floras Lake

Sailworks Retro 7.5, Goya Bolt 115, MFC KP-R 42, Wind: 12G22

Good to be back on the water again. Slightly better numbers for me for this wind speed (compared to two weeks ago) and jibing did improve so alpha was slightly better. Lasted a little  longer than two weeks ago before the leg cramps set in. Guess I'll have to up the elliptical training sessions as they don't seem to be compensating for my lack of OTW time...

Roo commented:

Waterfront Park, Hood River, The Gorge Day 31 2017 Season

Loft Race Blade 5.6, Naish SP80, vector Volt 29.

A bit more wind than yesterday, nice to get the small gear out and let loose. Wind a bit warm so not a lot of juice, had to retune for the dry wind. A bit less downhaul to tighten the leech for some drive off the wind and the lower eyelet to add some twist, nice combo that was a knot and half quicker than my usual setting I used for the first 30 minutes. Water level a touch lower and the jibe ARoona not operating in optimum range!

I commented:

Roo, thanks for posting your tuning tips - every little insight might help me at some point...

Roo commented:

Lately I've been retuning all my sails as I've dropped another 10 pounds in weight. I need to compensate so I have been adding extra downhaul to get the sail twisting more but using the top eyelet to reduce the overall twist along the full length of the leech. It's been working, I don't get lifted but the sail still produces good power with a little bit of backhand pressure to lean agaisnt. Today with the warm wind the sail was too light in the hands with no backhand pressure. Reducing the downhaul tightened up the leech but would normally lift me if I used the upper eyelet. By using the lower one I got more control with even twist along the leech. Considering I've lost nearly 40 pounds in 3 years I shouldn't be going as fast as I am, I was worried I would be slower but that doesn't seem to have happened.

I commented:

40 lbs!!! Good job. There should be some sort of jelly bean just for that .

Maybe I'm starting to understand this tuning game as what you said actually made sense to me .  

One change I tried today and was a little surprised at the result was my front hand grip. Way back in the day until now I have always sailed with an underhand grip on the front hand. I noticed that Taty Frans and a few other Pros sail overhand grip on the front hand so gave it a go today - it was actually more comfortable and allowed me to get a tiny bit farther away from the rig. Not sure about control in choppy water, however.  The other change I made (starting last week) was to use the upper eyelet in the sail when I'm not overpowered - don't know if that slight difference in angle would effect the feeling of the over/under grip...

June 4 - Floras Lake

3554km

Langlois, OR, US - Floras Lake

Sailworks Retro 7.5, Goya Bolt 115, MFC KPR-42 Wind: 12G18

Better day today from yesterday. Average wind was a knot or two stronger today (and less holey in the middle of the lake) which made a noticable difference. Surprisingly, the wind was stronger on the east side of the lake with big holes in the jibing area on the west... Wind lasted longer today as well.

As per yesterday, sailing without the fleece top under the drysuit made a huge difference - no overheating and I had better stamina.

Getting comfortable with the Bolt 115 - I like it. When I did catch a gust and was able to 'lock it down' is was a sweet ride. Unfortunately, the gusts were just not big enough to carry any speed when running downwind so I tried, with only marginal success, to work on low-wind jibes. Oh well. Still a good day as the TOW is getting me more comfortable and confident to deal with the conditions Roo described today for Waterfront Park.

June 3 - Floras Lake

3533km
Langlois, OR, US - Floras Lake

Sailworks Retro 7.5, Goya Bolt 115 L, MFC KP-42 Wind: 10G20 NNE

Somewhat disappointing day with a couple of learning nuggets. First time out on the Goya Bolt 115. For theses winds it is an improvement over the Bolt 95 but today I would have needed at least a 125L (probably 135L) and wide board with a bigger sail. One other guy sailing - he was on a Bic E-Rock and a Sailworks 9.1 sail - he was planning most of the time but looked under-powered ... That said, I had about 30 minutes where I managed a few decent runs in the gusts. Once on a plane the board handled nicely and even under-powered I was able to complete a few jibes on both port and starboard tacks. I think the Bolt 115 will be my go-to board at Waterfront Park when winds are in the 15 to low 20 knot range. It has enough flotation that even with almost no wind I'm confident I can easily sail it back to shore - a definite plus with the holey/gusty Waterfront Park winds.

My learning nugget was that some of the symptoms I was attributing to being woefully out of shape (feeling flush and lightheaded) were actually due to being overdressed .  After the 30 minute session of decent wind I shed the fleece top under the dry-suit - what a difference. I was now ready to go but alas, no real wind. In thinking back 20 years I may have worn a rash guard under the dry-suit but definitely no thermal fleece. I had no idea the fleece would make such a difference.

Hopefully the wind will exceed forecast tomorrow so I can put some kms on the Bolt 115.

My Goya Bolt Armada...