Be it to tense the down-haul or simply as a quick fix to attach a harness line to the boom, the clove hitch is the thirst of the three indispensable knots any windsurfer should know. They guys over at SurferToday show a slightly different way to tie this particular knot.
Here is how it is done:
Every windsurfer has had one, and it becomes the fear of every harness user, especially at the beginning. They can be painful and dangerous. If you don’t know what I am talking about, here is a video compilation showing us that it happens to the pros.
Now admittedly we won’t be having such extreme impacts since we are not going as fast or with as much power as these guys so I hope I haven’t scared anyone away from the sport.
I will first talk about how to avoid getting catapulted and then on the best reaction you can train yourself to do if you are already flying through the air.
There are a few alterations to our kit and body position that we can apply:
Most catapults come through being caught off guard by a gust or wave. Learning to read the wind changes on the water and the way the chop forms will help you massively to see what is coming at you.
I used to love sailing way to overpowered. To the point that if I didn’t do at least 2 catapults in one session I wasn’t satisfied. That phase has passed thankfully but it shows that a good way to reduce your likelihood of catapulting is to get good at planing with a smaller sail.
If we have too short harness lines, the reaction time available to us when something changes unexpectedly is very small. With practice we become better and it becomes more comfortable to control the sail with short lines. Until then go for longer lines which give you a bit more leeway, more range to move the sail without moving your body and greater ease to hook out.
Slalom sailers use big fins firstly to avoid spin outs from the massive sideways pressure but also to get lifted out of the water and have as little surface friction as possible. In other words, a long fin can make your board lift out of the water at high speeds (my beginner boards lift out when planing down a wave with the centre-board out). If we know how to control this there is no problem but since that probably isn’t the case, make sure your fin is not so big as to lift the board out of the water uncontrollably.
One of the main reasons that I recommend putting the back foot in the straps first is that this is the strap that avoids catapults more than anything else. Only having the front foot in the strap is useless as it is the pivot point over which we rotate in a catapult.
As you notice you are being heaved forwards, pull the front arm in to take the power out of the sail. If you catch it early enough this will allow you to fall back backwards into the correct and stable position.
This can go in combination with the previous one, although I would only recommend it if you already have a little experience in lee-side sailing or some other form of sail control on the lee side of the sail.
At some point you will catapult. That’s just the way it is. Sooner or later you will be flung over the board and land with a crash or a splash. It is up to you and how you will react which one it will be and if the splash is going to hurt. The two things we want to avoid during a catapult is hitting the board with the mast or our body, and also avoid coming to a sudden halt on the sail (especially the mast).
The only real solution in this case is to sheet in as hard as we can and push the mast away from the wind. What this will do is make the sail turn downwind and let us rotate around with it so that we land in the water and ideally under the sail. This, incidendally, is also the second step to learning the front loop. I would recommend practicing this motion unhooked a few times so that you get a feeling for the motion and build up the reaction before you need it for real.
I hope this has been useful to help you prevent catapults. If you want to read more about them here is an interesting post on catapults.
Windsurfing battens nowadays are pretty resistant. The materials that are used make them more lightweight but at the expense of them becoming more fragile. Normally the fragility is no problem as we rarely subject them to forces great enough to snap the battens. However, if we fall on the sail or have a wave break on it, there is a large possibility of a batten snapping.
The bowline knot is the second essential knot on the list. It is the best knot to add a non-self-tightening noose to the end of a rope. It is used on the end of the downhaul line to hook the harness hook in to tense the downhaul.
Here is the sequence:
First off, don’t be misled by the title. I am only talking about how to get the form back on a fin that has scraped over rocky bottom.It is impossible to repair a fin that has snapped in half.
This also goes for fins that have been sailed over sandy ground a few times to many and have flattened the smooth curve to the tip. This also usually implies that the tip has been formed into a sharp point. These changes in the fin shape will greatly influence the efficiency of the fin and cause more spin outs than necessary.
Depending on how badly the fin has been damaged. If you have gone over rocks, it is very likely that the edge has split open and you can see all the individual layers of materials that make up the fin. If that is the case you have a lot of sanding to do if you use sandpaper. For the rough sanding it is best to use a rasp.
Then for the fine sanding you can use sand paper. There is a trick you can do though. If we just take the sandpaper in our hand and start scraping the edge, we will not get a good result because of the uneven surface and the small area of our fingers. What we have done at the surf center is to wrap some sandpaper around a block of wood and staple it on to make the sanding easier and faster.
Now to the technique for getting a smooth curve on the fin again. Don’t just sand the immediate area that is damaged but the 5 cm on either side of it in long broad strokes (to get a gradual curve) moving from one side of the fin to the other every two strokes or so (to make sure the leading edge doesn’t become flat but rounded).
As for the trailing edge, here is my advice on that. Obviously a sharp edge will make for a clean separation of the water from the fin and reduce the risk of a spin out. However, do not make it so sharp as to be able to cut flesh. I have had the painful experience of accidentally kicking the fin when hastily positioning the kit for a waterstart and have to get stitches on the sole of my foot. That same fin could just as well cut another part of your body in a wipeout or a stranger in a collision.
In short, have a narrow trailing edge on the fin but not so sharp that it cuts.
It can happen to anyone. It has happened to me more times than I can remember. It is annoying and exhausting, but it can also be dangerous if you don|t know how to get back to shore with the kit. First off there are two very important things to keep in mind:
The kit is the only flotation device you have and if you get tired you can just lay on it or hold on to it rather than try to keep your head over water in the waves. Aside from this it also offers more visibility for any rescue services that are looking for you. It is easier to spot a board and sail which may even have bright colors than a person half submerged in the water.
Obviously we don’t want to go to where the current takes us. However, we are not going to be able to be able to swim against the current. So, what is left? Swim perpendicular to the current. If we swim at 90 degrees to the current we will naturally be dragged downstream, but if we keep swimming across it we will eventually arrive on land.
Using the sail to move forwards with no wind at all is a very useful skill to have indeed. Mainly it consists of generating your own wind and then using the physics of the sail to work its magic.This technique is to be used if there is at least a little bit of wind as it is faster than the one below.
Start off by leaning the sail far forwards to the bow and opening the sail. From there pull the whole sail backwards to the stern strongly so that you move the whole mass of air over the board aft. It is important to do this in one energetic motion. What this does is us the mass of air as if it were stationary and we push the board forwards under it with our feet. This will generate a slow movement forwards.Then sheet the sail in so that it is practically in line with the board so that you provide as little wind resistance as possible with it and move it towards the bow again. The board will naturally start to slow down again and when it does we open the sail again to repeat the movement. This way we will advance slowly but surely towards land again.
This method only really works if there is no wind at all as if there is a little breeze, the wind can blow the sail back into the water and undo our work of putting the boom on the board. This method is also slower than the one mentioned before as soon as there is a little bit of wind.
If the water is shallow enough, we can also walk back to the shore although this method also works in deep waters. However there is a more and a less efficient way to do this. The most efficient way is to lay the boom on to the back of the board. If necessary lover the boom. The idea is to balance it on the board so that it does not touch the water. If it touches the water it will generate resistance and make advancing through the water much more difficult.
Then go to the bow and pull the kit behind you. This works for wading through the water as well as swimming if the water is too deep.
Image courtesy of http://www.nationalcentrecumbrae.org.uk/
Having the wind bail on you when you are out on a sinker board is one of the most annoying (and tiring) things that can happen. On top of that, even though the wind disappears, the current in the water will most likely continue, meaning that you will be at the mercy of the currents. This can be a real problem indeed if this current is heading out to sea.
Usually the wind will not disappear completely meaning that there will still be enough wind available to keep the sail in the air. Here our best option is to lift up the sail and hold the back footstrap while keeping our body as horizontal as possible (for less resistance) in the wake of our movement. This will provide us will a slow yet definite progress back to the beach. Another option is to hold the sail in the air with both hands and put the feet on the board if this is more comfortable for you. It ultimately comes down to preference.
The benefit of holding the position with the feet on the board is that if the wind does pick up a little, even if it is just a gust, it may be enough to lift us up with a waterstart and we can wobble on the board in a sailing position back tot he beach which is a little bit faster that dragging our body through the water even if it is a little bit more tiring.
If the wind does drop completely while we are doing this method we can always fall back on the next method.
It may be the case that the wind goes away completely so that the sail is not held up.by the wind. Here we lay the boom on the back of the board, trying to keep it out of the water as much as possible so that there is as little drag as possible. Then we stay at the middle of the board and hold the sail in place by holding on to the mast at about 30 cm (1′) above the mast foot. In this position we start swimming back to the shore.
