Very happy to be on the water again after almost 3 months non-stop working during a very windy warm jan-feb. Needed this session so bad… Unfortunately the forecasted wind was not playing the same game. Woke up early (6:30am) for a 2.5 hours drive during rush hour. Arriving at the spot, Koentje Tuinman was already there. Sun was shining, friends were all inbound, the only thing missing was…wind.
With the forecast in mind (increasing wind) I rigged 2 sets: F89 + 7.8 + Crossfire 31 and F51 + 7.0 + Crossfire 25. Featherweight Koen was the first one on the water with his 6.2 but he was hardly planing. When I saw him a few minutes later planing along the speedstrip, I took a gamble and started on the small set (65L) immediately. Dirk H was calling me crazy at first (but I am used to it already ;-)) but I stepped on the board and planed away in seconds :-) Watertemp was quite OK and outside temp was 18°C. Not much risk involved. A bit scared however with the new sandbar strecthing out far beyond the MRG. Went all the way around and with a few upwind tracks I reached the place to be. Unbelievable how easy it went with only a rather small Select Crossfire 25cm fin together with a 7.0 sail. The trim was spot on from the beginning and the board wasn’t bouncing on the chop when going downwind (as it did the last 2 times with smaller sails). Instead it was very relaxed hitting the tops only with the end of the tail. Even 200m away from the sandbank i could still go downwind at the same speed without having the feeling that it became too risky. Later on I changed to the C3 slingshot, but the wind was already decreasing, so I couldn’t realy compare. Upwind and halfwind cruising the slingshot was dragging too much… Two years ago I was also hit (like many of us) by the Slingshot-mania and everything went smooth and faster with the new fins, but nowadays I am more and more convinced by the classic style fins… The 25cm never felt too small, but wind was very marginal for a speedboard (most of the others were on 100+ boards + 7.8). There must still be conditions where a widebase fin is faster, but i just need to find out when…
Just after low tide the wind was almost completely gone (10-12 kts). Together with Dirk I was trying to get ashore, luckily the water wasn’t that cold anymore and the sun kept us warm. I could waterstart a few times, but with a backpack loaded with 3 fins, 2 bottles of water, food, small stuff, wet wetsuit, helmet, harness my 65L board just don’t have enough volume to keep 80-85kg floating. After half an hour wind increased a bit to 15-16kts and this is just enough to keep this set planing. Back at the dam, I changed to my F89 for some light wind slalom. Suddenly the wind increased again and we all went back to the speedtrip. Already 2 hours after low tide, so no speed conditions anymore. My 31cm fin was also a bit on the big side (because was rigged for 7.8 sail), but did however a few nice runs in the chop with slightly higher topspeed then with my speedboard (wind was stronger now). It was the real first test of the Falcon 89 and really love it. Couldn’t find the STOP button today but had to stop after 130 km’s because we went for some drifting icekarting heats in Rucphen with some other teammembers (Pat VH, Herman, Reginald, Dirk H, Willy W, André HD). Back home around midnight with another wake up call at 6am to go working… I love those days !!
Posting this session with the small set, because 4 runs were done with that one. Topspeed and most of the distance (70km’s) done with F89 + Crossfire 31
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