Vacation Report

From: Chris Kogelnik (kogelnik@interval.com-DeleteThis)
Date: Mon Jan 04 1999 - 14:58:02 PST

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Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 14:58:02 -0800
To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis
From: Chris Kogelnik <kogelnik@interval.com-DeleteThis>
Subject: Vacation Report

My family spent 2 weeks in Bonaire for the fourth year so I feel like a
local now. Bonaire is in the Dutch Caribbean, about 50 miles north of
Venezuela. Air and water are consistently in the 80's.

The south Caribbean seems to be having their own El Nino effects. The trade
winds which are normally extremely consistent, were hampered by many storm
fronts moving through. In the past, I sailed most days in the sub 6.0 range
on 100L boards (215#), but this year I spent the majority of time on 7.0 - 8.0
and 130L boards, with 10-30 minute periods of pre- and post-frontal squall
sailing on 5.5 - 7.0 and 90-100L setups. The squalls were easy to spot, being
ominous, moisture laden clouds. I would tool around on the big rig, checking
the horizon and then go in to switch to smaller gear for the fronts. Front
sailing happened a number of times a day, for short durations, and were
accompanied by torrential downpours strong enough to de-chopify the water and
feel like hail when going full blast. This also made it really difficult to
see below the surface of the water, normally crystal clear. Seeing the bottom
is really important since there are reefs which come into play on the typical
reach. I was lucky to avoid serious injury when I found a 4 inch deep section
at warp speed - I ended up buying a useless fin and a my rash guard prevented
more than just scratches on my back. The wrap-the-harness-around-the-tail
trick was most useful, once again, to sail back.

Typically I hate sailing on anything bigger than a 6.5, but I was amazed at
how well the '99 Naish sails felt in the larger sizes. The 8.0 has a lot of
power, the cams are smooth and the luff sleeve is a narrow cut which made it
easy to water start. This opinion may be biased due to the mediocre '98
season and I was just stoked to be planing, but seriously, it felt like short-
boarding in just 12mph winds, and I also was able to handle the sail in 20+mph
conditions, but that was a better workout that going to Gold's.

The lighter conditions and the fact there is a large waist-deep sandy area
made it easy to practice new things. I finally learned how to do short-board
tacks, heli-tacks, back winded sailing, a monkey jibe (though I never completed
one, I got close). I saw a bunch of people do Hoss tacks, but I still haven't
quite figured out what's going on. I anyone knows, please send me a
description. Since there are a lot of Europeans there, a number of people
were truly amazing free stylers with tricks like multiple sail 360's in a row,
while being on only on the same side of the sail; inside the booms, backwards,
clew-first rail ride; and most impressive was a tandem pair (OK the 2nd person
was an 8 year old, but still!) sailing around with the kid standing on the
booms, and they did things like helitacks and no-hands sailing -- the kid
would sit on the guy's shoulder and the kid's feet would hold the boom. It
was very cool to watch, especially the wipe outs. Not to mention that the
1996 IMCO North American champion and 2 former windsurfing Olympians were
tooling around. Watching these guys pull off some of these tricks was worth
about 100 of my wipe outs on the learning curve. There were also a bunch of
7-10 year olds that were making all of these moves and more with complete
control (I was getting pissed). If there is a windsurfing tour in 10 years
these guys could be the next champions.

So the things that I learned:
  1. Work sucks and never complain about the lack of wind where there is
      all sorts of rental gear on the beach.
  2. A short-board tack it much easier when the board is planing - ie. there
      is more displacement in the nose.
  3. Reach as far back on the boom when going into a helitack (just like
      jibing).
  4. When sailing back-winded, all the pressure from the sail should be
      supported by the front foot, driving the board forward, much like trying
      to get the board on a plane normally.

Things I learned in the past:
I won't be able to complete any of the things I think I learned how to do
on vacation at 3rd on an ebb.

I wish you all a most excellent '99!

Chris

Next message: Medi@web: "SAILING - Spa Regatta 1999 website online (Press Release)"
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