Hey folks. Got out on the new to me 27-year old Mistral Equipe Longboard the last 3-days.

CSA Race #3

Pursuit Race: Start Time 12:38 pm

Equipment: Equipe, 44 cm fin & 7.5 Gaastra 3x sail.

Got a good start. Among the group I was with I was sitting in 2nd place until the 2nd mark. Rounding this mark I had issues and dropped the sail. Had a hard time tacking back up wind on the new long board. Most of the fleet passed me on the upwind. Used the race to find a little technique of what works and what doesn't . Longer tacks work for me and keeping a high pinch. The last tack up to the 3rd mark was probably the best one. On the reach almost caught a couple. This event is like a mass start TT. Wind conditions were very light 1 to 8 with a few small burst of around 10 in the last 20-minutes. Good race, first one I finished. Slowly figuring out the club races and now beginning to see marginal gains of improvement. The new raceboard is a challenge to sail, it is very narrow and way different than sailing formula, slalom or wave boards because we are out sailing in like no winds.

On saturday was out at CSA. Good batch of wind from 10 to 1 or so. Took the raceboard out and got it up to just under 30 mph. Was on a 9.3 and uphauling this thing in the Carlyle rollers was tough. Second photo attached is the one upwind tack followed by a couple downhaul reaches. Tried out all eight of the various foot straps on this test ride.

After this I took out the 9.3 and the formula. Good winds and crusied up to Coles and almost up to Boulder and back. Keeping the formula under control is way easier than the longboard at this point. Got the formula up and over 30 mph (26.2 knots). Wind was forecasted to average around 14 with variable Carlyle gusts coming thru in the 20's. Seemed like the forecast was about right.

Anyways, racing every Sunday at CSA until the end of October. Anyone is welcome the sailing community out here is friendly. Currently I am the only windsurfer, if we got a fleet of at least 5 they would allow us our own race each week. So come on out. I know some other folks in the area are thinking about it.