Why didn't you just hold the sail near the top and let the board plane along beside the boat? Much easier....
Good on the clubbies for getting you in.

stribo said...

Why didn't you just hold the sail near the top and let the board plane along beside the boat? Much easier....
Good on the clubbies for getting you in.

I was talking about this the other day to someone. I think it is easy to bring boards in as you describe if the person piloting the boat understands how they react in the wind, but if they don't it could be difficult or dangerous.

It sounds like a simple thing to do, but I remember when I was learning that the guy in the safety boat would go a certain direction to make sure the sail didn't fly away.

On the other hand I have seen someone else do it and the board would flip over or the sail would go overboard every now and then.

The guys manning the safety boats in Dahab seem to be experts in it (offshore breeze and lots of people about), and I think they would not head directly into the beach but approach it at an angle to try and keep the sail and board upright (I think), or maybe it was that they keep an eye on the sail and board and compensate when it starts to go the wrong way. My memory is getting foggy now, I think I might have to go back there and check...

Thanks for the posters' comments, it might help others.

Stribo, the wind had come up from 11-12 kts to about 20 kts, with a consequent increase in wave size. The wave period in the Bay is typically 5 seconds, so all in all, it was unmanageable. I was being towed behind the RD: we had tried towing alongside and found that the RD was being bashed against the board/sail.

Wind warrior, tried it and failed. The board would round up viciously as I tried to water start (no/little force to hold aginst the power of the sail), so just getting on was difficult. Under way, I had to have my front foot near/in front of the UJ to try and keep the board steering and prevent rounding up. Was on a rocky lee shore and was only successful in sailing parallel to the beach, away from the rocks towards sand, without making it towards shore.

The last time this happened to me I was using a seat harness, which provided good steerage. This time, I was using a waist harness, which did not provide as good a steering effect, possibly due to its shorter overall length, compared to the seat harness.

For info of all, Robin (the lady skipper of the rubber-ducky), later told me that they are trained to tow boats only. I later went to the club and thanked the rubber-ducky crew and suggested to the Patrol Captain that they keep the UJ-tow point in mind, if the rig is still joined to the board. For longer distances, a sail de-rig followed by a hand-tow might be the best (I was only about 500m off-shore).

Also, there were 3 people in the rubber-ducky, so putting the board and sail on the thwarts wasn't possible (the board is 80cm wide).

Nebbian: thanks for removing the second submittal of my same post (a case of too many thumbs when hitting the "POST" key).

WindWarrior said...

Self Rescue for snapped/lost fin

Take off your harness and strap it upside down through your rear foot strap - Harness bar and hook pointing down away from the bottom of the board.

I can't quite visualise that. How do you strap it through your rear foot strap with the harness bar under the board?