Pure survival session, actually it was no fun at all, but I just wanted to have a go on the sail. I should have rigged it with a 340 mast, but took only a 370, so the sail was very on-off with very little loose leech and that made it an accident waiting to happen in these conditions. On the jetty in the harbour Koen measured 58 kts. I only had about 4kilo of lead, way to little. The water was comming over the stone wall, so sometimes I had a very limited view and ofcourse it made the water far from flat. the wind was that strong that I could only waterstart hooked in because the harnesslines were simply "flying around" and after 2 runs only on the arms, I was exhausted.

Then I took a long break and durig that break the wind "dropped" considerably. I guess about 10-12 kts. So when I went out again, I sailed pretty relaxed with this combo, but it were far from ideal conditions to set PR's, the "law of diminishing return" you know.

but after all I was happy to have gone anyway.

Te weinig wind helaas... Toen ik aankwam stond er (veel) te veel en toen ik erop ging zakte hij helemaal in.

Toch even lekker gevaren. Gevaren met een Vector Fins Delta 22, topvinnetje:)

En ook niet koud gehad in het warmehandjespak van ianovated.

first it was totally unsailable with 5.8 as smallest sail in 56 knots of wind! Didn't even rig.

Unfortunately I miss the supernatural fitness, power and balls for these kind of stormy winds.

than it totally dropped leaving us struggling to get 7.0 sails going in no much more than 20 knots of wind... but angle was good in the end.

2 lucky gusts made me see at least 70km/h on the dial so status acceptable... ;)

What to say... What i feared came reality!

Quite a strange situation this morning. Ed and me trying to walk to the water with both the same sailsize. Just a difference of 60 kgs bodyweight, but hey let's give it a shot ;-)

Was the first one on the water and Ed wasn't really happy with my performance, so went back. Derigged my 5.6 and rigged my 4.7 which I knew already didn't work together with my F51, but i had no other choice (no small board). Later on Alain joined me together with a frenchman on 3.7

Did a few runs but there was not a single spot with flat water and the gusts were real hard. If I had attached my gps unit to my boom, i would have higher speeds for sure because my gear decided a few times to go on his own ;-) And again, I realised that such a small sail doesn't work on the F51: really instable, awkword stance... Herkingen was definetely not the place to be today. Later Pat and Tom used the remains of the storm. So we were only with 5 on the speedstrip, however it was quite crowdy at the (parking)-spot ;-)

Then came the rain where the other were hoping for. Wind shifted almost 90 degrees and now it was a very broad angle but hardly any wind. Rigged a new sail now (3rd time today), but even the 6.3 was quite small. Did 2 runs on my slalom board and then it was game over. A whole day to surf 25 kms... 

A survival day I won't forget very fast... And again, i have to stick to my rule: Above 45kts predicted wind, I have to stay inside. Not easy offcourse: it could always turn out to be less windy and a possible PR day... Even my 15 kgs of extra (stone) weight didn't help me today... Wish I had the same skills but at least 30kgs more bodyweight on days like this :-)

Feeling good though to 

Vandaag in Herkingen, Zonnemaire had sneller geweest, maar Herkingen dan weer niet iets saver. 

Het water op gegaan in omstandigheden die me het best liggen, zwaar, veel wind, kortom een echte uitdaging.    Maar met zo'n omstandigheden , weet je dat je geen snelle tijden haalt.  

Na de regen was de wind weg en dan maar snel nog een slaom setje opgetuigd, de Nort  Warp 7,0 let de Falcon 110 en de Sonngtag SL R 38, hiermee heb ik dan mijn max gezet van 74,808 of 40,393.  Ik denk dat dit m'n snelste tijd is met zo'n setje.   Al bij al was dit nog een heel toffe "tweede" sessie.