nacra you got backwinded.
when the wind gets real gusty I use my legs a lot more, bending and lowering myself into the gusts, keeping the board flat as I can, riding the chop with my legs, less upright, like riding a motocross bike through sandy whoops.
its all about maintaining constant pressure in the sail in big gusts, if you back off too much it seems the trouble begins.
Great challenge for someone so new to the sport, but great learning ground!
Im back in this arvo about 2.30 for another 2 hour session!
I'll give the 5.5 another chance to explode today! Yesterday was awesome ('cept for that 'bullet' of wind about 2:45 that picked up my whole rig off the water and blew it downwind ..yikes. looking out at shearwater now its much the same gusty 25-30 with periods of rain
the Flapping of the sail is the sail twisting off in the gust - it gets to a point where the flex of the mast is such that most of top of the sail ceases holding wind & creating pressure - wind passes over both sides of it at the same speed - The bottom half keeps producing power & that keeps you on the plane- they are designed to do this, and that is why you crank more down haul in windy conditions - it flattens the sail and brings the sail to this point more easily/quickly. They are designed so it is progressive - it starts at the head of the sail and works its way down making the sail very controlable. if the top 5% is twisting off it remains quite comfortable and controllable.
If the whole top half of the sail is twisting off down to the boom - it sounds like kind of a rattle/shake at very high frequency like a hiss- then head for shore you are seriously over powered and should take a break. You get the centre of effort of the rig moving downwards sharply and you have to push up with the forward hand to keep it working.
If it is seriously flapping (not a shimmy shake or a rattle) there may be a tuning issue or the mast isnt right for the sail - but I was out there too & there were some very unusual gusts coming through - like a wind shear -everyone had the same issue!
I used to sail in the days before these type of sails - when you were seriously overpowered they just went berserk and flung you up or down & flipped you off the board - ie totally unsailable. - when the monofoil sails came in with the new cuts, they were utterly mirraculous!!! you could get home instead of floundering for a couple of hours.
This is the reason there are far less rescues that there used to be. In the old days if the wind came up quickly and you were caught on the worng sail it could be impossible to get home! - hahaha - progress isnt always so bad!
Yeah i definately got back winded but it was different it wasn't constant and i don't think (pretty certain) that i was heading close enough to the wind to get "normally" back winded. I think the wind might have been playing funny buggers a bit. When that storm surge hit at about 2 it was something else. The wind was already strong before it but when it hit holy crap. There was a lot of people there with heaps more experience than me, that's everyone, and not too many looked comfortable which made me feel a smidge better about the way it felt to me.
yes exactly - when horribly overpowered in a gust I find the boom pushes back at me hard so I am pulling in with back hand pushing out with front hand and trying to stop the rig rotating with both - I dont really know what happens to the harness - I dont deliberately detatch, but then it isnt doing anything, there isnt any weight on it and it probably drops out - hang on as long as possible & get to shore!!! I agree it isnt really sailing - survival with style!
