Ady wrote: Haha! Love it!

In the 5.0m size, I think the Cheetah would be the best bet, as the smallest Lion is 6.0m. I actually have a Lion 7.0 that I have really enjoyed. First try on it last year I was all excited for windier but cold conditions at Wolf, plus I have the Lion and a carbon fin to try, but forgot my harness, so had possibly the worst combo for what I did all day which was practicing waterstarts! It did convince me that the camber sail-the Lion at least-wasn't all that much harder to handle as all I did that day was waterstart/beachstart, blast in straps but no harness, gybe or tack, and the do it over again.

As to time on the water... I feel like I get a lot more than you and still feel like it's never enough. I was lucky enough to have a long day out on Monday, as usually I only sail for about an hour and half to make sure I'm back in town for kids pickup. I really feel like a longer sail with a break in the middle is better for learning. I should have gone Tuesday as well but decided to go to work instead (dumb)

I was planning on hitting Evanston last year but never had freedom on the right conditions for it. Planing on it this year again, but work might force me to start there later in summer when I understand you can get a half price beach pass. If you ever know of a group sailing or a fortuiitous condition hit me up in spring and I'll make an effort to go.

I will say big breeze was not intimidating, more like awesome as having a smaller sail was pretty easy to handle. The sail didn't honestly feel all that bad even rigged wrong, but I do wonder if it would have been easier to plane with the right mast or a different sail. Still consider the day a total success as it was fun and the smaller board (still the highest volume if not the widest out there that day) was not impossible, in fact it was pretty fun. I've had a week long smile on my face for the planing runs, as it was so so much nicer than the big breeze days last fall. I'm sure it's not just the volume and widfth, but the Bolt was much more comfortable throuch chop. The RRD (which is still great!) really felt like riding a mountain bike through moguls, just really beat me up and I couldn't get it going very fast.

Barely gotten out this year, but had a bad break turn into a productive day last week. It was NUKING and I was ready with the new Bolt and a 5.0 Cheetah, and it was the most wind I'd ever sailed in, even more than the other time this spring where I first tried the Bolt. Rigginb up I had an issue where the extension clip snapped, and the mast slid down in a hurry, putting a small crack in the finish layer of the mast. My buddy was there to give me some tips and suggesting I go out anyway, but stick close to shore or maybe practice water starts, so that if it broke completely I could just drift in. DId exactly that, and felt like I gained about 3 days in one of sail control and water starting. I got a bit better at water starting last year with my big board, but this spring was completely unable to waterstart on the 69cm wide board. As of the other day I nailed a few good ones, and a whole lot of crummy ones, but really feel like it all makes more sense. Things learned:

Be patient with getting the rig perfect before even thinking about getting near the board
Getting the rig flipped got a ton easier, which I think will help with gybes
The first foot on the board is really a light touch, and pulling under your body more than standing up like a beach start
As soon as you're up, a bit of pushing the rig forward keeps the board from spinning up into the wind, which was a problem for the first half of sail

Was a really fun day which almost got skipped. Having someone on shore is amazing for getting tips and progressing. Can't wait to try it with bigger sails. Weirdly, despite all the swimming and crashing it was a lot less tiring than my usual sessions in windy conditions (pretty sure the gusts were into the 30s) where I've been uphauling. Another windsurfer showed up as I was getting off the water so I was able to watch his water start in the same conditions which was helpful as well. Less helpful was his U joint exploding after the first 50m, which made me feel a bit better about my own gear breakage!

Hoping to get out again this week if work allows, as this was one of those sessions that makes you hungry for more.

Cool stuff! Once you waterstart consistently, you will save tones of energy to ride longer and more efficiently. Then you can tackle the jibe!
BTW, I replace the tendon of all my UJs every couple of years or as soon as there's sign of excessive deformation or the material show excessive discoloration. Even if you don't ride often, these thermoplastics degrade overtime and lose their flex. Better be safe!

Nothing easier than waterstarting a 5.0 when its windy enough to use one. Wind flips the sail into position, sail clears itself once you lift the light sail a few inches high, if gusty you can usually feel when there is enough wind to try. Starts to get harder at about 6.5. Heavier sails need to be lifted some degrees from horizontal before there is enough sail area facing the wind to hold it up, and you sometimes have to wait for gust, get the whole waterstart in during the gust. Past my 30th year of windsurfing I was still learning some new maneuvers to get up in the lightest winds.

David Mark wrote:
True!
And in light wind, especially with larger sails (7.0 and above), you sometimes need to clear the clue from the water BEFORE you want to sheet in the sail to waterstart. If you sheet-in and still have the clue stuck in the water, your sail will sink deep! Been there! Very frustrating! To prevent that from happening, I usually, I swim to the top of the sail, lift it to the wind and travel my way to the boom fairly slowly so the wind has time to clear the clue from the water. This is especially true with Cam sails when the cams are on the wrong side full of water. Clue must be cleared before you can yank the cam on the other side with an energetic downward pull of the boom while still swimming! After a few of those you'll find that your head can stay above the water without using your arms!
Something useful to learn is waterstart clue first: For example, it's useful when you screwed up a jibe, you're in the water and still have the boom in hand, the sail is in the air, but you and the board already switched sides. Saves energy from not having to flounder in the water unnecessarily!

Got sailing twice this week which was great. Did not get a lot of waterstart practice as Tuesday I literally beach started and then didn't fall in once for some reason, and on Wed it was way way too light to do anything but uphaul (only had 2 puffs that were planable)

Tuesday was the absolute best day so far, in addition to not falling in the gear was absolutely perfect and definitely the most planing I've ever done. Was back on the big board but for the first time ever I wasn't slow vs other sailors. The other two dudes both commented on it, and I hit 23.4kts (ha, never getting 25kts) but one of the other sailors topped out at 26mph so we were in the same neighborhood. Nicest thing was almost whole day was planing after the first 10 minutes. Have no idea what was going on but it really felt like something clicked and the gear was right. Was really really sending it hard downwind and it felt like the fin was the only thing in the water. Was also able to sheet ALL the way in for the first time ever which was quite cool, you can really feel how the balance on the board moves aft when you get faster.

Two new weird issues:

-Sending it super deep downwind when it was gusty I was running out of breeze and it felt like the apparent wind would totally fade out and go fwd. Weird feeling.
-Even though it wasn't super choppy, when going deep downwind the bouncing was really harsh. The sail would shake hard and it was pretty hard on my neck of all things. The narrower board would have been smoother I think, but I don't know if it would plane as well in the lighter patches as the RRD did.

Things that worked well:
-Foot steering was really fun today, no idea why but it felt like heels or toes and balance between the front and back foot were super responsive.
-Going super deep downwind. With planing the whole time I was able to get upwind in the lighter stuff but then a good puff could really get taken deep.
-For whatever reason today felt good to get in the straps right before a puff and then push hard as the puff arrived. Never had it so easy to get on the plane.

Just awesome time, wish I could break free again soon to keep it going.

Had another really nice day even though it was light. Was able to sail the "small" board (Bolt 117) in lighter conditions with the 8.0 and all of a sudden it felt really easy to get around with, did one waterstart early on and then just stayed up except for juimping in to cool off or adjust things. Was able to tack, gybe and get planing by being in the straps first so all of a sudden that board feels normal. I did switch down to the bigger board chasing a lightening breeze.

Seems like the waterstart day unlocked a lot for me. Can also say that being able to have longer sessions (my normal free slot is about 1.5hrs for sailing) really is better, as I usually stop to take a drink and then go back out and the second part of the day has been feeling way better. Neat!

Impressed you were able to waterstart the 8.0. If you can do that with the 117 Bolt, you will find that your larger board is almost irrelevant, the Bolt should plane very close to as early with the lighter weight and some active footwork.

It was windy for the waterstart, at first I thought the 8.0 was going to be too much sail but literally the first couple minutes were the best wind of my day. Two other guys came in totally wiped on 8.5m so it was dropping throughout the day. At the end the only guy who could plane was on a formula board about a mile wide.

It seems like the 135 board which is 85cm wide is always going to be earlier planing than the 69cm wide Bolt, at least in the bigger sail sizes right? The Bolt "by the book" says 8.0 is the biggest sail for it, but it seemed fine so maybe I could go bigger? Admittedly, the 8.0 Cross is a really lightweight sail which probably helps.

Yes, the 85cm wide will plane sooner and require less effort than the 69 to get moving. I have the 69 and I found that this version of the Bolt with its more exaggerated Vee is not a particularly early planing board but it’s fast!

That makes a lot of sense based on how it's sails for me. The 85ck board was only a little behind the big formula that was on the lake when it cans to planing threshold, but I've found that once the chop gets up it is slow and hard to control as it bounces and the edges dig in. The Bolt is very comfortable and smooth over waves but does need a bit to get going. Now I really need to learn how to pump. I'm mostly just waving the sail around and hoping.