Received: from hplms26.hpl.hp.com by opus.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.8/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1) id AA12796; Thu, 16 Jun 1994 22:38:03 -0700 Return-Path: <glen@sun-valley> Received: from Sun-Valley.Stanford.EDU by hplms26.hpl.hp.com with SMTP (1.36.108.4/15.5+ECS 3.3+HPL1.1S) id AA07205; Thu, 16 Jun 1994 22:40:02 -0700 Received: from jacksonhole.Stanford.EDU by sun-valley (4.1/inc-1.0) id AA17661; Thu, 16 Jun 94 22:34:15 PDT Message-Id: <9406170534.AA17661@sun-valley> To: wind_talk@opus.hpl.hp.com-DeleteThis Subject: Warning! Nautix mechanical base owners Reply-To: glen@sun-valley.stanford.edu-DeleteThis Phone: 415-903-9877 Date: Thu, 16 Jun 1994 22:34:14 -0700 From: Glen Sapilewski <glen@sun-valley>
I think I was cursed after reading the rescue stories this
morning! This afternoon the universal joint on my board broke
sending my board skimming away from me at a high speed. I feel
obligated to warn others about this poorly designed product.
Here's the short (comparatively unexciting) story :
I was sailing this afternoon at Coyote about 1.5 miles out,
comfortably planing along with a friend only 30ft away.
All of a sudden something gave and I found myself quickly in
the water holding onto my rig while watching my board VERY
quickly gliding away. LUCKILY I was sailing with a buddy who
chased the board down for me. If I would have been alone, I don't
think I could have caught it.
Although I bought safety line earlier in the week, I hadn't got
around to figuring out how to carry it - bad move!
Luckily I always sail with an uphaul which I used to tie the remains
of U-joint to the board. I threaded the upper end of the
uphaul through what was left of the mechanical universal. To
tie the rig to the board I loosened the base and wrapped uphaul
underneath the round plastic disk. I tried to leave as little
slack as possible but the knots in the uphaul prevented this.
I was able to sail relatively comfortably until things loosened
up. This resulted in the mast base migrated around the board
mostly to the windward side of the board making it rail up.
At this point I was pretty tired so my friend, who is a better sailer,
sailed my board the last 1/3 of the way. I'm glad he was around!
WHAT BROKE :
Nautix mechanical universal joint. Second time on the water!
This was the result of a VERY poor design. The bolt-head
which wasn't very big in the first place pulled right out of the
bottom half of the mechanical joint. There was CLEARLY not enough
bolt head for the rubber/plastic to grab onto.
I'm not exactly sure where this base was purchased (not my rig)
but I haven't seen it in any of the peninsula Windsurf shops
thankfully! I would highly recommend getting rid of it and
sticking to the tried and true, Chinook, Windsurf Hawaii, or Streamline
bases.
Afternoon snapping a boom on Sunday, what's next ... my mast?
Lessons :
Even new equipment can break if it isn't high quality
Sailing with a buddy is THE easiest and best safety measure
Extra rope is VERY valuable
Glen
P.S. Sorry for cluttering wind_talk, but hopefully this will
serve as a public service announcement.
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