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...