Last Saturday seemed like the last sail of the season, but still warm and windy.
Unusual for me, there was some sort of premonition, I checked the board carefully before leaving the beach. Fin, ropes, universal, boom, control lines and harness were all examined for signs of fatigue.
With a newly registered 'Fast Find' epirb tucked into the harness I went banging offshore Point Peron.
Thinking about safety the real weakness came to mind, me. Did I check muscle and joint function with stretches, what about respiration, heart rate and beat. My pacemaker battery has not been charged for over 10 years. The JP board and Neil Pryde gear was bullet proof compared to me!
Near to the Five Fathom Bank, and further offshore that I would care to admit, I did my customary lower into the water, and soft jibed for the return run.
The rig felt strangely loose, the swell still had the left over Margret River Classic guts. Big long downhill speed runs on steep green waves, a little wobble in the rig, bugger it, down the next one.
Rolling thru The Shoalwater Islands, on the last of the curling ones, then smooth water high speed into the beach. The mast almost detached from the board, with a broken universal joint, and the safety lanyard cords just about broken in two places. Another few hundred more metres and I would be swimming.
Had the cords broken 3 miles offshore then I could have got to use my new epirb,
and I would have done too if it was to far to paddle home before sunset. On the other hand maybe I could have tied the mastfoot to the board with the downhaul rope and self rescued perhaps.
The moral of the story, you can't check the condition of the uni rubber around the screw fastenings, and by the time the rubber is worn out by flex (4 years), the safety cords are stuffed by exposure too!
It only took 10 minutes to fit another mast base, and I was back out to the Bank and big waves again.
If it turns out to be the last sail of the year, then it was certainly one of the best, and enough for the dream to next season.

Put a new uni rubber on every year, along with new bolts that hold it in place. While you are at it do your fin bolt and the little brass thingy that it screws into in the fin. I have had a downhaul pulley rot and break so I do them too.
When you sail and then chuck stuff in the back of your van, where it stays until next time you sail, gear deteriorates without you ever noticing!!

Glad you made it back ok.

When you replace the tendon (apparently "Streamline" tendons are best as they use the same rubber as the skateboard industry - it has oil in it so it takes longer to dry out and become brittle) then also look at replacing the string.

Some guys have said use 400lb plastic-coated fishing trace instead as it's far stronger.

I broke one of thease this season and so did my brother. we both had the plastic spacer top type uni foots, and that's where both of them broke, mine was a north one. I cant work out why they go cheap on making such a important part. It's the most important part of your windsurfer. I now have a metal top, so the pin and metal spacer are one unit, instead of a metal pin and a plastic round spacer on top.

This guy did well to get back anyway, would be so scary this happening at margret river..

Hi, Pointman,

The device is a Personal Locater Beacon (PLB) used by bushwalkers, dinghy sailors and struggling windsurfers. Cost is about $700. You can Google "Fast Find PLB" to search in Australia to get more info, but they should be available from marine stores.

Just got back from the Brisbane 4 x 4 show where the PLB's were on display and I read some of the literature. Just note that the best PLB is one that has an inbuilt GPS, giving your distress location as well as the distress signal. Others have only the distress signal, so it takes the rescue service much longer to find you.

Hope this helps.

That's OK for you younger lot who don't need reading glasses.
I would be stuffed trying to text in the water and read what was going on through the plastic.
That little EPIRB looks the jatx to me, I will definitely chase one down.

graceman said...

That's OK for you younger lot who don't need reading glasses.
I would be stuffed trying to text in the water and read what was going on through the plastic.
That little EPIRB looks the jatx to me, I will definitely chase one down.

Not to mention that using a mobile implies some level of confidence in the network coverage. I wouldn't be that keen on trying to use a mobile if I was more than a kay or so offshore, particularly in regional WA.

I reckon I'm gonna get one of these units for sure, $700 is small beer if it saves your life.

How does the test button work on those things? Do you get search & rescue rolling up to your front yard everytime you press test?

zippyblue said...

>>>>>

One guy also mention tying sail to board with rope/elastic band incase the UV join fails. This keeps the rig from separating from the board in a crash, which helps stop them drifting apart quicker than you can catch. I like this idea but not sure how it can work without getting all wound up, and never seen anyone do this before.

<<<<<<<<

I used to do this about 15 years ago, when unis and stuff weren't so reliable. I had a minor collision with another sailor, no damage except he had a separation. I hung on to my board and his sail while he swam for his board. Wind wasn't honking, think we had 4.7s up. But it was ages before he managed to catch up with his board and paddle it back. That freaked me out a bit, so after that I put a surfboard legrope plug just forward of the mast, tied an uphaul rope to that instead of bottom of sail.
You're right it was a pain, had to constantly unwind it from around the uni, but I put up with it for a year or so.