Day #25 on the lake, Day #4 for Karla

Max Temperature 93 °F / 33 °C
Wind Speed 8 mph / 12 km/h ()
Max Wind Speed 17 mph / 28 km/h
Max Gust Speed 22 mph / 35 km/h

Part I


Part II

We didn't see the unpredicted wind reflected in the gold box above; that came after Karla left.

Karla hit the water around 11:00 am with Superlight and 5.3, sailing in 5-8 with occasional gusts to 11-ish. She had several crashes, but did extremely well. Sure, she still did some rounding up and falling and got backwinded a few times, but she also hung from the boom and got her speed up. It was a great day for her. A couple of times the wind shifted, she got backwinded but kept her cool, sailed backwards a bit and then recovered and went forward.

She left around 4 and I put the 9.5 on the Superlight. I wasn't sure I could get out of the cove without the wind dying, but it picked up once I got past the Marina and was blowing high teens on the lake. I had minimal downhaul and it was hairy reaching across big chop, so I came in and packed up after one run. Too bad it didn't do this last week when lake traffic was light.

A Great HIHO Report!

Read the best HIHO Report ever and check out the video below!

Old School Freestyle

The Peconic Puffin's Blog is full of treasures. One of my absolute favorites is this Old School Freestyle Video.

YouTube - Learn To Windsurf

I found this nice video from Starboard which features the Starboard Start beginner board. They made the center fin retractable, so it is now actually a centerboard and I think is a vast improvement over the centerfin because you can retract it on the water.

Tim W. & Bob R. Photo

I'm dying to post something new since I moved this to Blogger, so here are Tim W. and Bob R. from a few autumns ago.

Day #24 on the lake

Max Temperature 86 °F / 30 °C
Forecast: NE 10-15
Wind Speed 5 mph / 8 km/h (NNE)
Max Wind Speed 17 mph / 27 km/h
Max Gust Speed 23 mph / 37 km/h

Karla had her third lesson today and I had hoped to get her more powered up. Hamilton Creek Cove certainly did not see all the wind the lake saw, but we had our fair share of gusts and Karla got overpowered several times. She often points too high and is barely moving, but occasionally bares off and goes. I just cannot get her to step back and hang, but we’re getting there.

{ Part I }

{ Part II }

I took the AHD and a paddle so I could do rescues and at one point, Karla ended up in the end of the cove and I went and got her. My tow line was too short, so she had to paddle out while I sailed the Superlight back upwind. I had rigged the 5.3 for her and when I got back to shore, I rigged the 4.6 and it worked much better.

We were on the water by 11:30 AM and quit at 7 PM, so it was a long day of sailing for her. It looked like a great 9.5 day out on the lake, but Tim is sunburned from last Thursday, Bob was tied up with a church function, and it was the weekend, so I would not have wanted to sail anyway. Temps and humidity were low for July and it was a fabulous day to be outside. Karla and I were chilly when we got wet. This is great camping weather!

What sailing means to Finian Maynard

What does sailing mean to you?

It means independence, a time to harness the power of nature. Without being on the water I don’t know how I could stand being on land so often.

– Finian Maynard, World Speed Record Holder

Day #23 on the lake!!!

Max Temperature 95 °F / 35 °C
Forecast: SW 5-15
Wind Speed 3 mph / 10 km/h
Max Wind Speed 15 mph / 24 km/h
Max Gust Speed 24 mph / 39 km/h

NEW GPS RECORD!!! 23.8 mph

They called for wind, but not this much wind!


I got on the water at 11:30 with the Fanatic, 7.5 and 13.5 ATX fin and had some great runs! Tim finally got on the water about an hour later. I had just thought how great I was pointing and how rusty Tim must be, but he shot upwind like a rocket and I worked for 30 minutes to get upwind to him. Winds were really gusty and shifty; we rarely caught the same lift or header.

I sailed from 11:30- 2:00, took an hour break, went back out for 30 minutes and was done.

Day #22 on the lake

I went to Hamilton Creek for Karla’s second lesson. I considered rigging the 9.5 and going out on the Superlight, but the wind was so light that I didn’t bother. I rigged the 5.3 for Karla and went out in the cove.

I thought Karla got home from work at 5, but she actually leaves Green Hills at 5. She arrived at HC around 6:30 and did really well again.

At one point, she was going to weather, but made a big downwind turn, sailed 50 feet, tried to tack, got backwinded and fell. She asked about this later and I explained what happened.

She has a bad habit of looking at the sail and not watching her direction, but at the end of the session I got her to steer the board back and forth, so I believe she will really make progress next time.

Also, she tends to drop the sail anytime she gets overpowered, so I told her to drop her butt next time. I hope this works so we can get her out in more wind and get her speed up!

Day #21 on the lake (barely)

Today was to be Karla’s second lesson. She was coming out after work, so I went and rigged the 5.3 and put the Superlight uphaul on it. She ran home first and I was all rigged, so I went out to make sure the uphaul was going to stay tied. After 30 minutes of messing around I dropped the sail, grabbed the uphaul and it broke in half. I was sure glad this happened to me rather than Karla.

I unplugged the mastfoot, dropped the sail, grabbed the boom and tried to stick the foot in the base, but did not want to scratch up the board, so I just held it for a few minutes and reached the far shore.

Day #20 on the lake

Wind: 3-10, gusts 12

Tim met me at Hamilton Creek at 10:30 to sell me his 5.3 ProgressLine, which I will use for teaching. Karla, who found me on the Internet a week ago, arrived an hour later for her first lesson. Tim took off, but came back several hours later and took some photos which you will see below. THANKS, TIM!

Since this was my first beginner lesson this year, I thought I better make some notes last night and was glad I did. I printed and followed them for the land-based instruction.

Karla did really, really well and stayed upwind for the first part of the day, but began heading downwind later. Once when she sailed way downwind, I got her to meet me at the shore, I took over, and she first knealed and then stood up as I took us upwind.

She did so well that I taught her to bypass the uphaul on tacks, instead grabbing the mast as she steps around.

It was a true pleasure to have her as a student and I think she will be around for a long time!


Nice uphaul form!






Look how light the wind is. Look at that little 5.3.
Look at the trail behind Karla. That is good sailing!

YouTube - Stand Up Paddling (SUP)

Standing on your board and paddling is all the craze. I've sat and paddled several times and didn't see what all the fuss was about until I saw this:

Day #19 on the lake

Max Temperature 89 °F / 31 °C
Wind Speed 7 mph / 12 km/h
Forecast: NW 5-15 or NW 10-20 (wunderground/weather channel)
Max Wind Speed 13 mph / 20 km/h
Max Gust Speed 22 mph / 35 km/h
GPS: forgot to start the timer :(

I got busy building a new trailer box and then the rain kicked in and the wind died. We finally got some today, but boy it was trashy.It rained this morning, then the sun came out, but there wasn’t any wind until around noon. I took the trailer first to the dam, where I saw wind come from every direction at the same time, depending on where you were.

Then I drove to Cook and wished I’d brought the Superlight, as it was perfect 6 knots and not a soul in site.

Then I went to Cool Swimming Area and it looked like 8-9 over by Elm Hill Marina, but it would been iffy to get there.

Finally, I went to Hamilton Creek Boat Ramp and it was really dead all the way to Bear Island. After I picked up trash left from 4th of July fireworks, I went and gassed up and hit BK for a sandwich.

I went back to the boat ramp and thought I saw a couple of whitecaps. The wind was a litte more Northerly now and I thought I could make it out, but I wasn’t positive I would plane and wished I had the 10.5. I rigged the 9.5 with minimal downhaul.

Winds were so light I had to uphaul even though there were some gusts at the ramp. 30 yards out I fell when the wind died. As soon as I uphauled, the wind picked up, I got in the straps and was flying upwind. I was pointing really high and was getting so overpowered I had to bear off. I headed to the end of Anderson Road walking trail up by Bear Island to batten down the hatches. When I got there, I hopped off and looked upwind to see solid whitecaps! Damn, I wish I was on 5.5 right now and I’m quite sure 5.0 would work, too.

The water was really rough and I didn’t want to lug everything to shore and downhaul, so I moved the outhaul to the bottom grommet and maxxed the outhaul.

I was so OP’d going back toward the boat ramp that I stopped at the Anderson Rd. boat ramp to downhaul, but now it had let up and I decided to head in. Only the wind shifted and I had a terrible time getting back; I must have tacked a dozen times.

Once I got on the other side, the wind was alternately huge gusts and huge holes. I would see a gust coming, it would hit, off I would go only to get backwinded by a gust coming from the opposite direction.

I sailed for 40 minutes and that was enough.

The wunderground graph is complete bull as are the “Max” numbers above. I know I saw solid mid to high 20’s.

Another Sailable Day - 4th of July

Wednesday, July 4th, 2007

Though they only forecast SW5-10, it’s been blowing for a couple of hours as of 9:30 AM & is currently SW12 gusting to 17. Oh, how I wold love to be out there, but I drove over the dam yesterday and saw more boats and PWC on the lake than I have ever seen. Besides, I am going to give the new trailer one more day in the sun to dry, it still has no roof and no rack.