Club Vipers - March 2011 - Trial run & Tips|General Club Discussion|Forums|Hickling Windsurfing Club

Saturday March 12 – Sunny, 13 deg C. F3-4 SE – This write up will also help others understand how it all fits together.

Having missed out on the 'Epic' 3 days of mild weather and strong winds in February, Wendy and I decided on a gentle start to our windsurfing year by getting to grips with the Clubs Vipers. The shed has been upgraded by JT, and little G with the access door moved to the end so it's much easier. A significant enhancement, it's all well organised, and another great benefit to members.

Equipment selection.

Boards: The choice of boards are Viper 75, 80, 85 and the old heavy Hiflys. Not sure what the volume is, but Wendy picked the smallest, 75, and me the 80 (I think the measurements are the width in cm?).

Sails: Next sail choice. I went for the 5.3 m to make it easier to handle and turn, Wendy went for the 5.8 so she could burn me off!

Mast: All the masts are 430 long so that's an easy choice.

Boom: The booms are pre-adjusted to the correct length and numbered. Just match the boom number to the sail number.

Adminstration: Just record the kit you have used in the log book, and use the other log book for recording any damage/missing items.

Rigging

The mast is quite a tight fit in the mast sleeve, so takes some effort to jiggle the mast to the end cap on the sail (don't alter this setting). Add the mast extension, pulley system, and put some tension on. Fix the boom head on the mast, this was a little tight – should have taken JTs advice and done this before adding downhaul tension.

Put on some out haul. For us it meant pulling the loop through the sail eyelet and slipping over the guide on the boom end. Easy, no knots to undo. Then downhaul fully so that the top of the leach goes loose about half way across the top of the sail – there is a mark on the sail to look out for. These sails do need a lot of down haul, so make sure you have a good rope puller at hand. Do ask for help from other club members to check it's set correctly, a badly set sail can make windsurfing very difficult.

Tension the out haul to the distance printed on the sail by the boom cut-out slot. Note these sails are marked with diffent lengths depending on how high the boom clamps on the mast – never seen that before. I had to add a little length to the boom to give me enough length.

Sailing.

We were expecting Force 2 for some light wind cruising , but at Hickling South Easterly blows off the Sea, giving some excellent clean and much stronger F 3/4 winds.

I left the deck plate in the centre of travel, connected up the rig to the board. Off I went. The first thing that struck me was how well the sails set. It was gusting to about 20mph, and the sail felt stable and easy to control. Wendy actually got planning easily with the 5.8m in the gusts -a real credit to the equipment. These boards are set-up for beginners and therfore don't have foot straps or harness lines fitted, and so it's kept simple. Having been out performed, I stuck to light wind manoeuvres, and found the board very controllable even in the gusts.

There were only 5 of us on the water, JT trying out the new sail rack, and his brand new 8m Tushingham, little G blasting around on his usual 8m Pryde/JP Super Sport combination, Richard with a very complicated looking cam 9m. So all in all a great start to the year, warm sunshine, good wind, with the others all planning. Ending off the session with the usual mardle, coffee, and hot shower. Great day.

Cheers, Martin