RE: A day in the life of a windsurfer - survival story

From: Mike Eglington (meglin@leland.Stanford.EDU-DeleteThis)
Date: Thu Apr 09 1998 - 19:10:21 PDT


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Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 19:10:21 -0700 (PDT)
From: Mike Eglington <meglin@leland.Stanford.EDU-DeleteThis>
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Subject: RE: A day in the life of a windsurfer - survival story
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I think people are writing off a line connecting the sail and board
too quickly. I have an extra mastbase nut in my masttrack, with a
little loop of line tied to it. Once the mastbase is in, there is no
way for the nut to get out. I have a slightly longer than necessary
downhaul line, and when I connect the rig and board, I tie the
downhaul to the loop of line attached to the extra nut. Sure it gets
twisted occasionally, but you'll be surprised at how your wipe outs
average out. I've been doing it for the last 3 seasons, and I think I
have had to unwind it less than 10 times total (you can unwind while
down in the water, by the way). Keep the extra downhaul line out of
the way, by coiling it up and wrapping it in a U shape around the
bottom of your mast, underneath your mast protector. Strap up your
mast protector extra tight, so that the line does come up easily, but
can feed out if the sail twists around in one direction too often.

Simple and I think effective, because my board and rig are connected
by a piece of line that is under zero stress until something actually
fails.

Mike

On Thu, 9 Apr 1998, David Veach wrote:

>
> ------ =_NextPart_000_01BD63BB.2C3532C0
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
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>
> A thought provoking story, glad to hear you made it Carlos.
>
> How about a cord connecting the foot and the board, similar to what
> (no wind) surfers have? Has anybody ever tried it? Is it possible?
>
> Sergei Burkov, Ph.D.,
>
> I thought about a leash but didn't ever try it because I don't think I'd like the
> leash on me when one of those 30mph+ crashes occurs (which is far too often
> for me!)
>
> I've been thinking of rigging a safety line from my mast foot to a "mount"
> secured in the mast track behind the mast base (similar to the safety line
> across the tendon on my Chinook bases) As long as something is holding the
> rig to the board, it's not going anywhere.
>
> This would protect the situation where the mast base completely comes loose
> from the board. I have had this happen more often then I've had a tendon
> fail(never, but I keep them pretty new). I've got a couple of old mast bases
> that I could trim down to fit in the mast track behind (or in front of) the
> main base and I think I'll try it this year.
>
> Anyone ever try anything like this or have any other suggestions?
>
> -dave

Michael L. Eglington
Email: meglin@leland.stanford.edu-DeleteThis (or) meglin@relgyro.stanford.edu-DeleteThis
Tel: (650) 723-9791 (Work)
       (650) 723-7723 (Fax)
       (650) 497-2316 (Home)



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