Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!
By Tom
I am posting this blog as a warning to all of you who may fall prey to the same temptation.
I have been sick for a week now. It started last Tuesday which I had to take off as I simply could not get out of bed. I think it is just a cold, but a very bad one. So after a week of sickness and missing some really good wind I was getting frustrated.
Yesterday it was just too good to ignore.
With winds solidly over 30 knots (which it has not done for months) I felt it was too good to miss. So at 2:45pm I raced up the hill to grab my speed board and GPS then headed to Sprecks. When I got there everyone was on 4.0/4.2 sails. Perfect, I rigged my 6.0. I put my Vector 23cm Axis speed fin in which Jeff Fagerholm had given me to try 6 months ago. This was to be the first time I used it. The tide was low and getting lower so I donned my helmet for the first time in a year.
My first run was my fastest with a 37.1 knot 100m. I could feel all the energy and strength rapidly draining from my body. I kept telling myself I just need 5 runs to post on GPS Speedsurfing. But I was struggling. Every time I dropped the sail in the water I could not get it back out to waterstart. I just had no strength. The tide was getting super low and it was too shallow to go all the way down the course. I tried to run the top section but the wind was a bit too east and there was not really enough room to work with.
It took me an hour to do my 5 runs with rests and struggles waterstarting in between. By that time I was completely wiped out and could not sail anymore. It was also way too shallow and I had solidly run aground a number of times on what was a brand new fin.
The Results of my struggle:
max:
time m km/h knots
16:02:29 19.4 69.898 37.742
15:43:50 19.3 69.528 37.542
16:39:29 19.2 69.124 37.324
16:18:32 18.8 67.847 36.634
16:31:16 18.6 67.083 36.222
15:43:31 18.6 66.798 36.068
16:35:58 17.3 62.284 33.631
17:04:06 16.8 60.492 32.663
17:16:51 16.1 57.896 31.261
17:03:50 14.9 53.615 28.950
average[2]: 69.713km/h 37.642knots
average[3]: 69.516km/h 37.536knots
average[5]: 68.696km/h 37.093knots
100m:
time s km/h knots
15:43:52 5.2 68.794 37.146
16:02:30 5.3 68.488 36.980
16:39:31 5.4 66.927 36.138
16:18:35 5.4 66.719 36.025
16:31:18 5.5 65.483 35.358
15:43:36 5.8 61.672 33.300
average[2]: 68.641km/h 37.063knots
average[3]: 68.069km/h 36.755knots
average[5]: 67.282km/h 36.329knots
My GPS is set so it does not record speeds below 30 knots. That is why the runs are joined with straight lines.
So in retrospect it was a really stupid thing to do. I proved nothing except that you should not sail when sick. I was not really sailing, just hanging on letting the gear do it's thing. I got really lucky and had no big crashes despite turning my board into a submarine on one occasion. The whole thing duck-dived under a wave and came out the other side. I don't know how I did not get pitched - I was lucky it was the start of the run and sub 30! There were a lot of small crashes, every run seemed to end in a crash. I think I made 3 gybes all day. My 5x10 speed was a pathetic 35.3knots. It was a day it should have been 38.
Today I feel terrible. I feel more sick than ever and everything hurts. So learn from my mistake and don't do it! Today is less wind and epic wave conditions, but I learned my lesson, I am not sailing again until I get well.
I am posting this blog as a warning to all of you who may fall prey to the same temptation.
I have been sick for a week now. It started last Tuesday which I had to take off as I simply could not get out of bed. I think it is just a cold, but a very bad one. So after a week of sickness and missing some really good wind I was getting frustrated.
Yesterday it was just too good to ignore.
With winds solidly over 30 knots (which it has not done for months) I felt it was too good to miss. So at 2:45pm I raced up the hill to grab my speed board and GPS then headed to Sprecks. When I got there everyone was on 4.0/4.2 sails. Perfect, I rigged my 6.0. I put my Vector 23cm Axis speed fin in which Jeff Fagerholm had given me to try 6 months ago. This was to be the first time I used it. The tide was low and getting lower so I donned my helmet for the first time in a year.
My first run was my fastest with a 37.1 knot 100m. I could feel all the energy and strength rapidly draining from my body. I kept telling myself I just need 5 runs to post on GPS Speedsurfing. But I was struggling. Every time I dropped the sail in the water I could not get it back out to waterstart. I just had no strength. The tide was getting super low and it was too shallow to go all the way down the course. I tried to run the top section but the wind was a bit too east and there was not really enough room to work with.
It took me an hour to do my 5 runs with rests and struggles waterstarting in between. By that time I was completely wiped out and could not sail anymore. It was also way too shallow and I had solidly run aground a number of times on what was a brand new fin.
The Results of my struggle:
max:
time m km/h knots
16:02:29 19.4 69.898 37.742
15:43:50 19.3 69.528 37.542
16:39:29 19.2 69.124 37.324
16:18:32 18.8 67.847 36.634
16:31:16 18.6 67.083 36.222
15:43:31 18.6 66.798 36.068
16:35:58 17.3 62.284 33.631
17:04:06 16.8 60.492 32.663
17:16:51 16.1 57.896 31.261
17:03:50 14.9 53.615 28.950
average[2]: 69.713km/h 37.642knots
average[3]: 69.516km/h 37.536knots
average[5]: 68.696km/h 37.093knots
100m:
time s km/h knots
15:43:52 5.2 68.794 37.146
16:02:30 5.3 68.488 36.980
16:39:31 5.4 66.927 36.138
16:18:35 5.4 66.719 36.025
16:31:18 5.5 65.483 35.358
15:43:36 5.8 61.672 33.300
average[2]: 68.641km/h 37.063knots
average[3]: 68.069km/h 36.755knots
average[5]: 67.282km/h 36.329knots
My GPS is set so it does not record speeds below 30 knots. That is why the runs are joined with straight lines.
So in retrospect it was a really stupid thing to do. I proved nothing except that you should not sail when sick. I was not really sailing, just hanging on letting the gear do it's thing. I got really lucky and had no big crashes despite turning my board into a submarine on one occasion. The whole thing duck-dived under a wave and came out the other side. I don't know how I did not get pitched - I was lucky it was the start of the run and sub 30! There were a lot of small crashes, every run seemed to end in a crash. I think I made 3 gybes all day. My 5x10 speed was a pathetic 35.3knots. It was a day it should have been 38.
Today I feel terrible. I feel more sick than ever and everything hurts. So learn from my mistake and don't do it! Today is less wind and epic wave conditions, but I learned my lesson, I am not sailing again until I get well.
posted by Jeffrey, Glenn and Tom at
11/25/2008 12:26:00 PM
5 Comments:
Hi Tom,
Sorry to hear your under the weather at the moment. Take heart that your slow runs done while sick are faster than my fastest runs done in prefec health. Get well soon.
Mike
Tom, you sailed within a knot and a half of Pascal Maka's historic world speed record at the ditch in St Maries de la Mer, France, but you did it sick with a production board in choppy open water. Fine form. So get well soon.
Still good times Tom, imagine what you will do when you are feeling 100%? What does that new fin look like now?
Dave,
Well, what I should have done if I were well is what Pieter Bijl did that day - push the 100m record over 40!
As for the fin - not too bad, bit of sanding it will be fine. This is why I don't choose carbon fins. G10 rules!
Windsurfing is an interesting thing.
It is very common, even among experts, to make bad judgments about what is good for one's own self, just for the sake of "getting out".
In the worst case, it means serious injuries (perhaps even death); most of the time it just ends up in a day like Tom's. Truly, it MUST be an addiction.
IMHO, those of us who have some credibility as leaders (locally or on a bigger scale) need to do our best to keep less experienced sailors safe and having fun. Safe fun.
All in all, Tom's day isn't that wild-eyed, but it does illustrate the point.
Thanks for sharing, Tom.
GEM
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