Ady, I’m going to pass too

Feels like better days are coming soon

They're trying to bring it back a little. 2 hour window for late afternoon.


Clinton Lake

You guys are too quick to quit Remember:

But if I wait for Thursday I won't have to change my boom setting(4.2) for the 4th session in a row.

If the Bloomington windmills are turning my 7.5 John Deere will be churning

Clinton Lake water temp, at its coldest spot (west side), is now 56 F and still climbing.

You missed on a very good day, guys. Especially Sylvain missed very good conditions for jibe practice. I did mostly that-working on my laydowns and I believe I improved some or at least started to understand where things go wrong and how to fix that. We had a blast me and Mike from Bloomington, whom I met for the first time and the 3 hrs or so intensive sailing left me completely exhausted. I started around one o’clock while it was still light and wisely didn’t waste much time before making my way to the narrows where the squeezed wind had a punch . Took a break around 2:30 and should have foreseen that the wind is picking up and rig the 6.5, but I didn’t and then I had to slim down the 7.5 as much as I can to withstand the 30 mph gusts. The stiff Nolimitz Sumo mast that I bought this winter was rock solid and couldn’t get overpowered and distort the sail even in the strongest gusts, very happy with it. I came out after 4:30 I think when some rain showers chased away the wind and made for a tough downwind home run, but the rainbow that they created over the forest was incredible. Great day, Im glad I made the trip.

Cool! Glad you caught the window. Nice flat water on either side of The Narrows with the boosted wind. Drop some pics in this thread.

It was flat on the far/west side only, on the inside-heavy chop and swell. That’s just the way I wanted -diverse-makes for a better practice. I’ll post some pictures later, I could only check the clip with the front mounted camera. I’m surprised I got something from it, because the cam was getting in my way in transitions and I bumped it a few times. You can bet my head is out of the picture for half of the time after adjusting on the fly. The rest are top and back mounted camera clips. I took a few shots of Mike with the Nikon , but haven’t checked it yet.


And some video:
windsurfillinois.com/index.php/videos/71...t/video/229-untitled

Pictures of Mike and his 8.5 Gator/135 Mistral ...(corrections might be needed) that I took while he was coming in for a break.

Hey Mike, if you read this, nice meeting you! I didn’t want to appear too intrusive, but I noticed something odd about the setup of your rig and the pictures seem to confirm it-your sail appears straight like a drum membrane. There is not a single crease anywhere to be seen, which is unusual in a modern sail, especially a big one. In contrast you can spot the floppy leach of my sail in the 3rd picture. A tight leach like in your sail is a clear sign of inadequate downhaul tension which is a big NO in a modern sail regardless of conditions. People sometimes believe that under-downhauled sail has more power and will help them plane earlier in lighter winds, but in fact it is counterproductive. It hinders the board from planing by being top heavy and pushing the board nose down slowing it in the process.
Another oddity that came to my attention while looking at the pictures is that it appears that you have your boom attached to the lower clew hole of the sail which is a setting for very powered conditions and in fact I switched to that hole on my sail late when the wind picked up a lot. Sometimes pictures and first impressions can be wrong, but your struggle to plane a little bit kinda confirms my suspicions. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my sail looks very different /the picture below/ in its light wind setting so I couldn’t help but notice how different yours looks.