Sport Today

with discussions of the possibility of Rob going >50 mph, I presume
the wind must have been around 35 mph or greater.  This brings me to
the point of wondering what are practical upper limits of wind
velocity in which you can stay on a board, even with a 3.0 sail.

I've sailed in a number of gales and noreasters and found that once
it's gusting into the forties it's practically impossible for me -
but I've never been to the Gorge.

--
Jack Faller

Went back to the beach, pulled out my Dwyer-Liar and measured 61 mph
on the beach.

Now, if it's consistantly out of the low thirties I dress up nice and
warm and sit on shore and watch.    Done a fair amount of watching
and, IMHO, no matter what the people who're out there say later, they
aren't really having what I call fun....more like survival
sailing...take a run out, try to jibe without getting slammed, sail
back in, try to get into a wind shadow and jib again....Maybe
"interesting" of you like those sort of challenges....but I break too
easily...

I can, however, say that I've seen plenty of people sail into the high
forties and low fifties on two-somethings and low threes.  I've also
seen Gorge pix in (WindRider?) mags whose captions claim that
so-and-so is sailing in 70+ gusts....

-----------------------
Pete Cresswell

Well today at Rooster Rock, I decided not to sail... we measured gusts to
50 knots +.  And that was before the wind got up!!!  At stevenson where it
was only blowing 40-45 knots, people were on 3.0's...  Today was too cold,
I must be wimping out!  Must have been spoilt by last weekend's 3.2 day on
sunday trying to get my arms longer!  winds were 38-40knots...

p.s. last weekend the ultimate nightmare happened, while driving up to
Rooster into a 30-40 knot headwind, my roof rack with two boards, full
quiver bag, 3 masts     took OFF the car...... I was a very lucky fellow
considering there wasn't much traffic, and everyone manged to stop in
time.. damage was minimal!!! board bags recieved road rash!!!  waaaah....
that was a close one!!!

Good question.  I have always been amazed at the amount of "bragging"
that goes on it our sport about how windy is was.  I have sailed in
winds in high 40's and it is not fun to me, rather it is doing it to "do
it".

To me the ideal days are not the ones where you are tieing down the van
so it doesn't blow away, but the days that your rig is in balance with
the wind, planning and learning.

Jack :

For me anyway, there are more factors than just windspeed.
I believe I've sailed in steady winds that were over 40 mph  and it
was kinda fun as the venue was So,. Padre Island and the water was
very flat due to short fetch.  I also sailed (not very sucessfully or
fast) the Ponds years ago in some fairly phenomenal winds, but once
again the water was flat.
If the wind is gusting more than about 10 mph, then I will probably
sail it,  but it won't be fun.

SW day then my biggest problem is keeping the board on the water.
I have a micro sized 7'11" Eric Voight B&J board that does a real good
job, but sometimes I can sail alright but I only go fast when I have
control, and I only have control about half the time.
If it's gusty or too choppy etc, I usually go out for a while, but
since it's less than fun, I don't stay out long. As someone else said,

you can (and I have ) get hurt by megagusts. I got pitched once in a
40+ gust in Mission Bay and separated a rib, broke my harness hook and
a harness line. Kept me off the wate for about 3 weeks.
later
sailquik (Roger Jackson) US 3704  MD Ph#(301) 872-9459
Cert. Level 1 WS Instructor       NC Ph#(919) 995-3204        
F2 Thommen;North Sails/Rigs;True Ames/Rainbow Fins;

It's all relative.

If I haven't sailed in a few weeks, I'm going out and I'll have fun even
if I'm drinking it most of the time.

A good example was about two weeks ago.  It was blowing in the low 40;s
and raining.  I needed my wind fix.  I'm only 140lbs and my smallest is
a 4.0.  Too choppy to get to any scary fast speeds. Just catching some
air and watching out where the boom is when I loose it.

Ben

--
Ben Kaufman

antispam: To Email me, change domain from spam_sync to pobox.

 - 11/16/97

A few times each GOOD Gorge summer, Windsight sensors and their on-the-water
 interpolation, the weather reports, and a few hand-held gauges will concur on
 winds of 50 gusting to 60. There are many more people on shore than on the
 water, but there are most certainly many people on the water having a
 ***GREAT*** time, including me on my 3.2 at 180. And that's in swell up to 10
 feet. At Rooster Rock, where the water is MUCH flatter, some guys sail another
 10 knots. Can't wait until my first 2.8 is completed; my 3.2 was WAY too much
 twice last spring in NM.

And I'm an only an amateur, an expert only on my best days and nowhere near a
 pro. I saw a 110-pound pro woman out there on one day I couldn't handle (but
 she admitted she was more surfing than windsurfing).

Another caveat: the board matters a huge amount. I've found VERY few boards I
 can control in those conditions.

We had to clear a lake in NM once in winds of 50 G 60 to make room for a
 seaplane landing to refuel! It did, did, and took of again. Impressive! Our
 50-60 at 5,000 feet is more like 40-50 at sea level.

Mike \m/
Never Leave Wind To Find Wind

I'm not sure just how Beaufort would rate it, but my laborador retriever got
 blown off her feet one day we were sailing. Musta been a Force K9.

Mike \m/
Never Leave Wind To Find Wind

Did you mention the board (I know it was a roberts)  size and fin type/size?  I
 am curious because these are conditions that we all experience (20 to 25 MPH
 with 2 ft chop) and I just got my speedmate and am trying desperately to go
 faster than 27 mph!

Tom O'Brien - Chicago

Re: " I never make a smooth planning jibe since I can never catch up with the
 wind to depower the sail."

Harold --
Oversheet in your beam reach, or even pinch a bit upwind to oversheet. Once
 your sail foot hits your back calf, THEN bear off and jibe. If you can't
 "catch up with the wind to depower the sail", you tried to oversheet too late
 into your jibe attempt. Once you've successfullly oversheeted, you can jibe
 board, sail, and feet in an apparent vacuum with no loss of speed from one
 direction to the other.

And as for air/hang time in nuke conditions, yer right. It's always much
 smoother up there than on the water in big conditions, and air time is often a
 valid, pleasant, exhilarating escape from the trenches, curbs, and puotholes,
 especially when WAY overpowered or on a twitchy board.

And have you looked upwards at the apex of a hooked-in jump? Just faced
 upwards, maybe with a hint of shoulder roll-back? Everything just stops, as
 you float there in limbo, then gently descend to a feather-light touchdown. It
 works as well -- just not as LONG -- at 4 feet as it does at 30.

Just make sure you have a LOT of room downwind, 'cause you're gonna move over
 about three lanes in the process.

Mike \m/
Never Leave Wind To Find Wind

Bruce
--


....

Later dude, keep on trying, you'll get there.

sailquik (Roger Jackson) US 3704  MD Ph#(301) 872-9459
Cert. Level 1 WS Instructor       NC Ph#(919) 995-3204        
F2 Thommen;North Sails/Rigs;True Ames/Rainbow Fins;

Congratulations, what a rare moment. 90% of the responses in this
thread are believable. I have heard so many people sitting on beachs
say they have sailed in 50 mile and hour winds that are full of BS.
When you ask them how fast its blowing on the spot they will say 40
mph when I know its more around 30mph.

In my experience I would say they threshold for sailing is somewhere
near 50 mph, but that depends on a lot of stuff. I tried to get going
in a 45 mph ( that's that average wind speed)  one day and couldn't
even keep my board on the water. I would stand there and the board
would literally fly into the air and flop around while I held the sail
and boom. The gusts were were likely peaking at 60mph ( thats on a
every minute or so basis, there were bigger gusts)

I watched Peterson, Dougherty and a few pros go out one day at Rooster
Rock at I would guess was a  fifty mph wind and get flattened most the
time. They all ended up getting back to shore a mile down wind and
they weren't doing much sailing. Course that was older equipment.

Bottom line is when the wind is blowing fifty your going to have good
sized waves that will expose your board to being lifted off the water.
It is possible to get past that, but then you will have to contend
with gusty wind. That will ultimately be your  undoing. Now some folks
say you just need the right board. I say there ain't a right board for
those conditions. The wind is usually extremely gusty so you are going
to need something that can stay up in the lulls or try to rig too big
and get blown away. There is no happy medium.

Now if the wind blew a steady 70 and you had a bank protecting the
water    that was still low enough to let the wind through you could
just rig the right size sail and have a good time. It ain't going to
happen under natural conditions in your lifetime.