Wow! Where did this come from?! It wasnt on any forecast and I'm checking a few of them , several times a day, every day! Including early this morning. So I went to work-first trip for the day 4:30 am then did another one and then the big wait started. So Im napping in my car, in the parking lot of O'Hare, trying unsuccessfully to catch up on sleep and getting cooked slowly in the sun-the misery was complete and then ....WIND! Didnt take me long to make a decision, drop a big, stinky lie and drive like insane home to pick up my stuff and then off to Wolf. And boy, it was worth it! It was kinda light at first making me doubt my decision, but then it gradually started picking up forcing me to readjust the trim of my beloved 7.5 Retro twice -from min to fully maxed out using the lower clew hole for most of the session. Nice blasting, few of my friends made it as well and ...wait for it... I did 3 successful Duck Jybes on starboard tack! A bit shaky and not planing exits, but dry!
Waiting now for my equipment to dry , drinking Leffe and listening to my Blink 182 Pandora station -Paradise

Wow! Hey Ady, your day looks almost like mine! (Apart from baking in your car on O'Hare's parking lot) This morning, I literally through in a pile all my gears inside the car. Then, went to work at 7am for a morning of meetings. Can't really remember what it was all about cause I was absorbed by the weather apps. And then around 2pm, I noticed through my office window the line of trees going crazy! I bolted out, and drove 10 minutes to south beach in Sheboygan, WI. There, a handful of kites, 18kn wind and warm Lake Michigan was waiting for me. I rigged the 8.5 Lion, put everything in the water and had the best 60 minutes of sailing since I got back in the sport 3 months ago. Gusts passed 20kn, I was flyin' baby! 200 yards out and the 2-3' waves were like roller coasters. Fun! Then the wind started to weaken. I folded all my stuff in less than 15 minutes. Dried and dressed up again and back in the office for a 3:30 meeting! I cannot believe I went out sailing between 2 meetings without anyone noticing ...I think! The lack of a good chilled beer was the only missing treat!

Good one Greg! You remind me of that super hero-the Flash

Gregory wrote:

Ha! Roger is my hero.

I still can't believe how lucky we got yesterday! Otherwise this week would have gone down like the 3rd one without a proper wind /for me at least/. There was some wind for today in the forecast, but with all the tunderstorms I knew it would have been extremly unstable and didn't put too much hope in it. And then this beauty out of nowhere, under the radar-this must be an August thing

Yeah, that was cool.
BTW, your trusted Retro looks really good. Love the color.

Gregory wrote: I love it! The guys in the Gorge know how to make sails that last, perform and have an insane range.
The head designer/owner Bruce Peterson is a great slalom racer himself.
m.hoodrivernews.com/news/2014/aug/27/bru...es/?templates=mobile
Ha, didnt know he's worked for Gaastra .
You can see how far in extends the loosness in the leech /the red mark in the second panel from top/ and thats the medium setting only. I also like the 2 clew holes feature wich lets the sail be trimmed down to what appears to be a half a squre meter at least less area. This helps tremendously in overpowered conditions like yesterday at times when I was able to still hold it in 28 kts gusts! FYI moving the mast foot a finger-width forward in the track prevents the nose from lifting too much and getting you airborn in overpowered situations .

Ady wrote:
Interesting! How does that work? Moving the boom 2-3 inches up or down at the clew, why would affect the sail's behavior?

The looseness in the leech extends even farther down /opens the overflow valve even more /-at least thats whats visible to my non-professional eye. The boom has to be shortend dough- by one increment otherwise the outhaul will be too much. The difference is dramatic ! Many sails have that now in the biger sizes, didn't the Gaastras have it? I know the Ezzys don't.
PS: Gaastra dont have it as well



Only the Vapor-as top of the line sail has the honor.

Just in time! In the last edition of Windsurf there is an introductionary interview with the sails designer of Neil Pride about the resurected V8 . I made a screen shot of what he is saying about the 2 clew holes:







This tread extension is probably worthy of entire new tread in the Gear section I think. Reid feel free to move it if you like.

Thanks for doing the research. Very interesting. It is just one more variable thing to think about:
Downhaul
Outhaul
Clew position
Boom height
Harness line length
Mast foot position
Fin size/shape/configuration
Foot straps position/configuration
Etc.