Expecting to be on Formula gear with at best 8.4m sail, I joined Ron, Art and Canadian Dave on the north side of the East Island today. It seemed that Art was moving at a decent pace, but he was too far to make out clearly, and Ron decided to change to his 11m sail with his homemade ~60cm fixed extension and the stock 490 mast, from the 9.0m he tried earlier. Canadian Dave was on the 9.0m sail and his very cool looking Starboard Formula, but not seeming to have much luck getting up on a plane. I decided to rig the 10.7m rigged a bit loosely for the light winds which proved to be a somewhat questionable decision later on. By the time I rigged, the wind has come up some and Ron took off without any hesitation followed by Can Dave, who was going to call it a day until he saw Ron skipping across the water. I followed soon and few tacks later joined Art just south of Jensen Causeway. Art headed back and Ron and I sailed what seemed a deserted river. It was a drastic difference from the weekend when we had to wait for the flottila of boats to pass up and down the channel. We made it to the J.Causeway when a small group of dark clouds rolling in from the East, started to create some serious white caps on the water. I decided better to play it safe and head back considering all the storms we had lately. That was one crazy downwinder. I tried to keep it in the channel to avoid having to look for the pvc pipes (marking the sandbars). Glad the Formula board has a "chicken strap" for those out of control downwind rides. Made it back safely followed shortly by Ron who had a blast going that much off the wind.
It seemed that the wind might hold up, so to be ready I rigged a 7.2m sail and got my 92l JP Slalom board ready. The wind did stay up and came up some, so Ron rigged a 7.4m and sailed it with his Bic. I could have easily been on a 6.2m and sailed almost flat waters until near sunset.
Sorry you missed it Dave. :(
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